Fight For Him
by MissBesanii
Summary: "You wouldn't need trust without betrayal." I explained. She smiled; "Then you'll have to trust that I won't betray you."   SoulSilverShipping. In Game plot with a twist.
1. Soul : The First Chapter

**I've been itching to write one of these for weeks! Then I got sudden inspiration for it. I'm going to twist the storyline, which is what I do best! May turn this into more than a one shot, like I did with Covet with Compassion. But the updates will be a little slower than my other works, because this is merely something for me to have fun with when I need boosting. **

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**Soul: The First Chapter.**

It had been three days, and the rain still hadn't let up. This storm was getting beyond ridiculous. It didn't help that my home town was renowned for its heavy gale force winds, and so my umbrella was almost pointless. Instead, I held my hat over the majority of my hair, and the rest clung to my neck, completely drowned. I was hurrying for the Professor's home, he'd asked me to drop by when I could, and put it off for a few days due to the weather. I gave up waiting. He lived across town, and it was practically a mission to fight against the winds towards the grand building that he lived in.

I'll never forget when I first spotted him. He looked lost. He was staring into one of the laboratory's windows, and his expression sent a wave of sympathy through me. He looked torn, confused and bewildered, like he wasn't sure about something.

"Excuse me?" Was my initial reaction. He flinched away from me, startled. He stared at me with large, almost frightened eyes, his blood red irises glaring at me defensively. The murderous look he fired at me nearly had me wheeling back home, but I persisted to walk towards him, holding my umbrella out invitingly. He eyed me suspiciously.

"Are you lost?" I asked, and he didn't say anything to reply.

By then, I was just a metre away from him, and so I held my umbrella over him. He looked up and then glared at me. "What do you think you're doing?" He spat, and it startled me. Though his voice was harsh, his accent clearly different from Johto, he pronounced his words so alluringly, I was entranced almost immediately.

"I-I'm Soul." I stuttered, and I was thankful he took it that he was intimidating me. Funnily enough, he'd done quite the opposite.

"Pathetic. Get away from me." He growled, and shoved my shoulder. It didn't hurt, and his hand lingered on my skin longer than necessary, he turned away from me and sat under the window. It's ledge was providing a little shelter for him.

"Why don't you come inside? I'm sure the Professor won't mind." I suggested, gesturing to the door around the corner.

"Are you still here?" He barked back at me, not even looking in my direction. I gave up, turning around and walking for the entrance, not before sending a wistful, sympathetic glance to him. His red hair was plastered to his forehead and neck, slightly covering his eyes. I could still see that he was staring at me with confusion, questioning my actions in his thoughts. Maybe where he came from, strangers kept themselves to themselves, never offering their help to those who clearly needed it. Quite a sad thought.

"Soul!" An extremely happy voice squealed as I entered the laboratory. Ethan Elm hurtled toward me with something cute and green in his arms. "Look what Dad gave me!" He shoved the pokemon toward me. It flailed its little green legs cutely and flicked it's leaf like appendage to me as if to shake my hand. It was adorably soft, and I was envious of Ethan for getting one.

"It's a Chikorita, Dad said a grass type would suit my battle style the most!" He went on to explain, even though I already knew what pokemon it was. I didn't burst his bubble, I just nodded politely and let him babble on about how they made friends.

"Ethan, let the poor girl breathe!" Elm chuckled, ushering him away as he sat me down in his office. He pulled my chair near the radiator, which I was thankful for his kindness. I looked around the room, one that I hadn't been in before, despite the amount of times me and Ethan had played around this building as young children. It was the same, white plain walls, but with photos of pokemon and Elm's family decorating them. It was nice to see a personal touch to the otherwise bland laboratory.

I also noticed two pokeballs resting in a red velvet cushion regally. One had a little flame sticker on, the other had a water droplet. I assumed the third that would have completed the set was now with Ethan. My heart started thumping wildly as I realised why I was here. Elm seemed to chuckle as my eyes lit up with anticipation.

"Go ahead, I'm sure you know what I was going to ask you." He gestured to the cushion, and I sprang up. I already knew which one I would go for, the one that would give me better chance at defeating Ethan. Besides, fire types were harder to come across, grass and water was everywhere for those sort of pokemon to live in.

He hummed; "Good choice. I like Cyndaquil too, I think she in particular will suit you perfectly."

I looked wide eyed at the Professor, who was grinning back at me. I was too excited to do anything but just stare at the pokeball. Sure, I'd seen one thrown countless times, but I was too scared to myself. What if I was bad? What if it broke?

"Like this, see?"

He took the ball from me, and pressed the middle button. It enlarged automatically, and then he threw it underarm towards me. Reflexes had my arms shoot out, but it stopped in the air at the peak of its arc, energy shooting it back into Elm's hand. The energy flashed towards my open arms in a white glow, then gathered into a blob which formed into a Cyndaquil. The glow dimmed until colours and characteristics shone through, then they flashed off the little pokemon in a glitter. I was completely mesmerised. Sure, I'd seen this species of pokemon leave the lab many a time, but this one was _mine. _

"Hello, little Quilly." I giggled, tickling its little tummy, to which is flailed its arms and squealed; "Quiiiiil!"

"Quilly?"

I looked up at Professor Elm, who was staring at me incredulously; "Well she's got to have a name, doesn't she?"

"It's not necessary," he muttered; "But what about when she's a Typhlosion?"

I pouted, then grinned; "Well why don't I call you Flo, now? Do you like that?"

She tensed all her muscles and flames ignited out of her back, I held her out away from me, careful not to touch the fire. Her legs flailed cutely. "Quil! Cynda-Quil! Quil!" I took it as a yes.

"Now, I was wondering if you could run an errand for me?" Elm smiled. Of course there would be a catch, nothing in the world is free. I nodded anyway, an Errand would only cost me time, and I had a lot of that now I'd finished school.

"Of course, Professor, where to?"

"Well, my son will go with you, but I just didn't want him going alone. Would you go to the north of Cherrygrove with him and pick up a Pokemon Egg? I think you'll be able to look after it better." He smiled at me ruefully, knowing as well as I did how clumsy Ethan was. I nodded eagerly, not only was I setting off into the world, I was doing it with my best friend.

"Yes, Professor. When would you like us to go?"

"As soon as you can." He said quickly, than gave me an apologetic glance when I looked to the window. I caught a glimpse of the red-headed boy who had been watching us, he ducked before Elm could see him. The frown on my face had been because of him, but Elm thought I was complaining about the weather. I assured him quickly; "We could go now, if you want?"

"That would be great, but tell your Mother before you leave. I don't want her thinking I'm being irresponsible, now." He grinned at me, and I grinned back. Elm was a very nice man, he'd known me since I was a baby, being friends with my Father since they were kids. He grieved beside me and my mother when he passed away.

I stepped back into the rain, and Flo squirmed until I tilted the Umbrella just right until no droplets touched her. Of course, I got soaked doing so. Oh well, that was part of being a trainer, right? We would give each other everything loyally for the rest of out lives.

The mysterious boy was peering around the corner when I'd started walking again, I looked down at Flo, who was peering at him curiously too.

"Why did you pick that one?" He sneered suddenly, and I frowned.

"Because fire types are cool." I replied, and Flo smiled up at me.

"So you're going to become a Mono-type trainer?" He nearly laughed, but it was more patronising and angry to be called a laugh.

Still, I jutted my chin out; "No, but me and Flo are going to become really good partners."

I saw him grimace at my nickname, but I just smiled, refusing to be put down by a pessimist.

"Do you not have any pokemon?" I asked politely, but he recoiled like I'd punched him below the belt. He instantly lashed out; "Are you calling me weak?" He shrieked, yet it was somehow quiet in these busy winds. He pushed me on the same shoulder as before, accenting his curse when he said; "Leave me alone, bitch."

"Ss-" I was not one to be affected by name calling, and his hit hadn't hurt, so I had no clue as to why I was stuttering. "Sorry." I finally spat out. I turned and walked away, if he'd had his doubts about my weakness before, I wasn't going to confirm it now.

I hurried home and explained my plans to my mother. She groomed Flo while I showered ready for my little journey, and she gave me a bag full of essentials. She then hugged me close and cried on my clean hair. Great, now I had to wear a hat.

"Oh baby! I'm going to miss you!" She hiccuped, and I decided to please her, wrapping my arms around her and nuzzling my head into her shoulder; "I'm not going to be far."

"But this is just the start!" She protested; "Next you'll be off to fight the world!"

I chuckled; "Not quite ready for the world fighting, but I might travel."

She sniffed, but our private moment was brought to an abrupt stop by a knock at the door. We turned our heads, and it took a moment for me to prize my way away from my mother, but I reached the door and let Ethan in. He and his Chikorita shook like wet Luxray, then moved into the hall way.

I grinned; "I'll be ready in a minute!"

"Forget your hat?"

"How did you guess?" I laughed, leaping up my stairs two at a time. There my hat sat, on my made up bed. I whipped it up, and placed it neatly onto my gravity defying flicked out from underneath, and I scowled, but gave up and hurried back down the stairs. Flo squealed its name and leapt for my arms, away from Chikorita who had been trying to play.

"Ready?"

I nodded, and Ethan bounded for the door. He held it open, bowed and gestured his hand to the horrific weather outside; "Ladies first."


	2. Silver : Seeking Respect

**Silver: Seeking Respect.**

I was flying through the route as fast as I could, so far, none of them had noticed what I'd done. I looked down at my palm to see a tiny ping-pong sized ball wobbling in between my fingers and smiled. It was mine. This pokemon was mine to command and nobody would stop me from becoming the champion, and then taking over Team Rocket. I would finish them once and for all.

Ha, how such a tiny, insignificant object contained a real living thing. I rolled it between my index finger and thumb, clicking the button and making it expand and shrink time and time again. I hadn't been watching where I was going. Turns out, neither had she.

I smashed into her with a loud thud, my momentum pushing her backwards so she cracked her head on the floor. Puddles from the continuous bloody rain splashed up at me and soaked me, and I spluttered as we lay sprawled at the edges of Cherrygrove city.

She coughed and muttered protests of pain as she shook her head and opened her eyes at me, her almond brown eyes widened. It was the girl back at the lab, the one who'd nicknamed her pokemon something stupid. She'd been oddly nice, despite how rude I'd been to her to get her to leave. "Oh! Sorry!" She squealed in a pitch that humans shouldn't _hear _let alone reach. She looked down at the way we were lying, and I realised what she was blushing at. My hand had landed at a very inappropriate place, and I recoiled away from her quickly. I grunted and scrambled back, holding a hand out to her for some reason.

She blushed and muttered her thanks as she took my hand, and I hoisted her up. She didn't let go of me straight away, and shook my hand politely. I raised an eyebrow, what a moron. She smiled at me, obviously as confused at my contrasting actions as I was. Uncontrollably, I tried to make her see that I wasn't somebody to be messed with. "You should watch where you're going." I snapped, and the confusion in her eyes grew more evident. Clearly, I'd made it worse. I rolled my eyes.

"I said I was sorry." She insisted. All I could do was grunt again, to which I mentally slapped myself.

"Oh, you dropped your trainer card." She bent down and picked it from the mud, wiping it on a clean part of her stupidly short dungarees and looking at it. Feeling a little violated, I snatched it from her and pocketed it quickly. How dare she just look? I didn't offer, did I?

"Silver," She smiled, and I winced. "That's a nice name."

I glared at her, Silver meant second place. I would never come first in my father's eyes. Of course, I was striving to prove I was better than the name I was given.

"Is something the matter, Silver?" She asked me, her insistence to use my name in a friendly gesture was starting to annoy me. Her eyes wandered over me, and lit up as she pointed to my hand; "You have a pokemon now! Did Professor Elm give it you?"

"Not exactly." I muttered, but she didn't seem to hear.

"We should battle! I've gotten really good at it while I travelled with Ethan. He left earlier to give the Professor his... uhh... _parcel_, and I stayed to train! Isn't that lucky?" She grinned at me. Who Ethan was, I didn't care, but I smiled inside at her suggestion. For I knew I had the upper hand. With practised ease, I clicked the pokeball's button and released my Totodile. It looked at me, slightly confused as to where it was. "We're going to battle now." I told it, and it seemed to understand the meaning in my words and nodded.

"Wow, your Totodile is strange!" She exclaimed, her eyes wide with surprise. She pulled a device out of her pocket, which scanned in my pokemon. It didn't seem bothered, but I was infuriated. How dare she insult my pokemon when her pathetic excuse for a fire type was called something ridiculous!

Upon seeing my glare, she shook her head; "It's definitely meant to be red and blue, see?" She showed me the screen, which a Totodile with blue skin and red spikes stood in its regular stance. I looked down at my Totodile to see it was green, with blue scales. I wouldn't have known it was any different, but the girl insisted it was true; "I've seen trainers go with a Totodile quite a few times, I've never seen one that colour. It must be really rare! Professor Elm must have really liked you."

I stiffened, yeah sure, I'd stolen his rare Totodile. Of course he would like me. Trying to act casual, I stepped away; "It's still stronger than your pokemon."

"We'll see." She beamed, even winking at me happily. I couldn't help but smirk with pity. "Come on Flo! Let's show Silver how good we've got!"

"Flo! Use tackle!" She threw her arms outwards enthusiastically. I had to roll my eyes again as I told my Totodile; "Dodge that." It did so quickly, and her Cyndaquil wheeled to try and tackle it again. Totodile jumped and looked at me for directions.

"Water gun." I told it, and it landed to look at me in confusion. The girl giggled as Cyndaquil rounded back and managed to tackle Totodile finally.

"Looks like your Totodile doesn't know that yet!" She beamed at me, seeing her chance. "Lets show them our Smokescreen!"

The fire type nodded and opened its mouth to release a jet of black smoke, engulfing the area to block my view of Totodile.

"Now tackle it again!" I heard her call.

"Scratch it!" I growled, surely it could do that, even _I_ could do that. Cyndaquil came sliding out of the cloud, shooting a worried glance to its trainer as it shook out the pain.

"And again!" I yelled, taking advantage of the shocked pair. Totodile leapt out of the smoke, creating a stream following it as it fell towards Cyndaquil with a raised claw.

"Dodge it, Flo!" She cried, that sickeningly sweet smile wiped from her pretty little face. My smirk grew even wider as Cyndaquil narrowly dodged, but Totodile swung around to smack it with its outstretched tail. Clearly not a move, but it knocked the pokemon off it's feet.

"Come on Flo!" She cheered; "give it another tackle!"

The pokemon, all credit due, got up and began running. Totodile rolled its eyes. "Again." I grunted, and it started changing too. I was beginning to like this pokemon, of all the luck, I got one that was as determined to win as I was. It began dragging its claw along the floor, ripping up the ground as it ran fully tilted forward. This clearly wasn't the average scratch attack, it must have known something more.

"That's slash!" She exclaimed, and Cyndaquil backed out of the tackle attack to slide sideways out of the way.

"Let's switch to special attack!" She grinned, and I was - though I wouldn't admit it to her - impressed she knew the terms; "show them our ember attack!"

I scoffed, all that admiration suddenly flew out the window, I didn't even order Totodile to dodge. It smiled and took the attack, but we were both taken aback by the sheer force it caused, shoving Totodile across the space, into the remains of the smokescreen.

"Now Tackle again!"

"Slash it!" I barked, squinting to see, to no avail. Cyndaquil ran straight into the smoke, knowing exactly where Totodile was, and a mighty thump indicated an attack had landed.

"Quiiil!" The fire mouse pokemon flew out with no flames on its back, and landed in a skidded thump, unable to battle. The collision had caused the smoke to rise, and Totodile had too been thrown onto its back. It struggled, but got up and smiled at me.

Ha, my first battle and I won it. I beamed at the girl, who was picking up Flo.

"We can still win this! Go, Furry!"

_Furry._ Really? I frowned at her as she threw her pokeball, the ridiculous looking creature landing at her feet on its large fluffy tail. She grinned at me; "I never said it was a one-on-one battle!"

Dirty cheater, of course, she was right. Totodile and I couldn't back out now we'd accepted the challenge. It nodded to me with a new found strength. Before I could say anything, it was determined to show me it was ready, jumping in the air and, to my surprise, spouted a water jet in Sentret's direction. Why couldn't it have done that earlier? The battle with Flo would have been so much easier.

"Defence Curl!" She threw her arms out like before, enthusiasm sparking in her again. The Sentret coiled its tail around itself, taking the water gun easily, and shook off the drops. Even with the rain beating down to make Totodile's water attacks stronger, we weren't going to do much when it was defending itself.

"Now use Quick attack!" She called, excitement dripping in her high pitched voice. It made me want to vomit.

"Slash." I ordered, and Totodile planted its feet. The Sentret landed, but fell with Totodile because of the momentum. This gave Totodile chance to land a strong slash attack, sending it flying in the air.

"Water gun!" I jumped at the chance, and Totodile fired from where it lay, landing with deadly accuracy. The Sentret was sent higher in the air with a cry of pain.

"Furry!" The girl squealed, and _Furry _responded by expanding its round body and glaring down at Totodile. "Totodile is tired from Flo's battle! Lets finish it off with quick attack!"

She was right, but the Sentret was weak. It began to fall with outstanding speed, and I nodded to Totodile, who timed its jump to collide a slash attack with the quick attack. Taken by surprise again, the obviously lighter, but now faster Sentret landed its attack first. With gravity on its side, Totodile didn't have time to try and land its attack, and crashed into the floor with Sentret still stood on it. That ridiculous creature stood victorious, as my rare Totodile shuddered into unconsciousness.

"Yay!" She squealed with delight, jumping in the air and catching _Furry. _My eyes rolled for what seemed like the thousandth time since I'd met the girl, and I returned my pokemon.

"Are you happy now?" I said with disbelief, how had she won with that thing?

She stopped in her tracks and frowned slightly; "Well yeah, I won."

"Well I'm going to get better, and get more pokemon too. You only won because you outnumbered me." I growled, pushing past her. She grinned slyly as I did; "Keep telling yourself that, Silver."

I will, because it's true. I shot her another annoyed look, one that seemed to bounce off her vibe without her feeling it at all. Her smile did not falter, and she looked extremely amused, to my annoyance.

"I look forward to seeing you again!" She winked again, and I turned as red as my hair in anger as I clamped my teeth onto my bottom lip. Saying anything would only egg her on more.

"...Humph."


	3. Soul : Finding Truths

**Woo! With another Ikarishipping chapter down, and college finished for the week, I've had time to do this! =D**

**Soul: Finding Truths. **

"Cyndaaaa..." Flo complained, nuzzling into my neck as she tried to warm me as well as keep herself dry. I was freezing, my jaw was so tense my teeth were chattering together in an audible crunch. If I were living in Sinnoh, I would have known to take a coat on my journey, but Johto was known for its heat, so where were these freezing freak storms coming from?

I'd been travelling north from Azalea town, Falkner had told me to go to a tower there and train for my next gym badge. He'd also muttered that I'd easily wipe Bugsy with Flo, which I was rather smug about, maybe sending me on a wild Zangoose chase was payback for defeating him.

Then, in the hazy distance, I could make out a large tower, swaying in the harsh winds. I made a run for it, muttering something about being almost there to Flo, but I doubted she could hear me anyway. There was sudden sheet lightning, whipping along the sky, going as fast as it came. Short seconds later, thunder rumbled with it.

As soon as I was under the veranda, I instantly felt relieved. Particularly because the rain no longer pelted my skin, and less wind got to me. I rapped on the door hastily, even the wood felt warmer than me. It stung to knock so hard with numb knuckles, but I wanted in.

The door peeped open, and I stared hopefully at the wide eye that stared through. He opened it wide and stepped aside quickly; "Come in, young child!"

I did so without hesitating, and Flo jumped from my arms and shook out her fur. Lucky for her, her fiery hot body heat dried her quickly. I was still shuddering from the lingering water in my hair as it dripped over my body.

"I'll fetch you a blanket, dear." The old man smiled and hurried off, I stood aimlessly while I waited for him, rubbing my arms pointlessly, there was no body heat in me to pass through.

He returned and draped it around me, then beckoned me to follow; "We'll put you by the fire."

Flo jumped into my cold arms, now they were covered, and we walked after him, mentally begging him to walk faster.

"Normally, we're not supposed to let you into Elder Li's room, but it is the warmest one, and you look chilly." He smiled kindly to me, and I nodded back, unable to speak.

To my despair, we ended up climbing three flights of massive stairs, which shuddered every time thunder was heard. The middle pillar wobbled a little more at those times too. By the time I reached the top, I was somehow producing freezing cold sweat. How could I get even colder?

The Sage wasn't even out of breath, and he turned to me; "One should be as fit as their pokemon, young trainer." He grinned, then turned to knock the door. I glared at the back of his head, sure that may be true, but I was in impossible circumstances. I probably could climb the stairs with ease if I wasn't so darn cold!

The Elder, a man dressed in far more elegant robes than the Sage who had guided me, frowned to the intrusion. "Sage Jin, I am in the middle of a battle!"

I looked around to see a strong looking Bellsprout in the midst of a Vine Whip attack which had wrapped around a Zubat, which sunk its teeth into the vine to poison it. Sage Jin bowed low with his hands in a strange gesture as he apologised; "I'm very sorry, Elder Li, but we have taken this girl in, who is quite cold.

"Throw it to the ground, Bellsprout!" Elder Li said before he turned to us again; "Very well, bring her in and sit her by the fire. Try not to disturb us."

Jin turned to me and smiled, then pushed the door open wider and beckoned me to follow. As I entered the room, I saw the challenger, whom I easily recognised. He frowned at me quickly, and then back to the Zubat as it skidded along the floor. It struggled to start flying again.

"Supersonic." He growled, and the Zubat began emitting a horrible sound wave. Even Flo was affected.

Reaching the other end of the room, - after walking around the battle field - Sage Jin placed a two pillows on the floor next to the fire and knelt on the one. I felt it would be too impolite to just sit like I usually did, so I bared the ache of kneeling too. The battle continued as Jin started to talk to me in a hushed whisper; "That is Elder Li's last pokemon, the challenger has done well to get this far."

"Is Elder Li strong then?" I responded politely, and Jin nodded; "He is the leader here, and very wise. He taught us the importance of cooperation with your pokemon, and hopes that through battle, he will teach this young man that wisdom too."

I worked to hold in the scoff that had been my initial reaction. I pitied the elder for even trying. I'd learnt a few things about Silver, I looked at him bitterly as he glanced at me, too. He couldn't hold our gaze though, which confirmed what I already knew.

I decided I would be polite and wait for the battle to finish before I confronted him. It didn't stop my glare that I kept on him instead of the battle. I knew he was aware of me, even though he never fully looked in my direction, his eyes would periodically wander over, and slip back to his pokemon when it got thrown about.

"Excuse me, I never got your name." Jin startled me out of my trance.

"Soul." I muttered, my eyes never once leaving Silver's frowning face. He looked over at me as I said it, then forced himself to look away.

"...Do you know him?" The Sage asked, clearly aware of how I was transfixed in bitter staring at the challenger.

"Oh yes," I said lowly; "I know him very well." Clear implications echoed through the room, and his eyes locked with mine again, once again mixed with all sorts of emotions; anger, sadness, bewilderment, afraid... I didn't let it affect me like it had back in New Bark, I finally managed to look away, whilst casting an upset look on purpose to really make him feel guilty.

"I sense some history..." Jon spoke with a sly smile, and I jumped at his conclusion. "What? Not at all!"

"Shhh!" He said to me quickly, and I looked around the room to see even the pokemon were glaring at me as they panted. I bowed my head as a sorry and looked back to Jin; "It's not like that." I promised, but Jin looked at me sceptically. I sighed, this would be much easier if I were a boy, people always think history between a girl and boy means... I blushed at the thought.

"Well," the Elder spoke loud and boldly; "That's that. Indeed you have great skill, child, but the way you treat your pokemon..." His face turned sorrowful and full of pity; "You can be much too harsh."

Me and Jin looked at Silver, who looked as though he'd refrained from rolling his eyes.

"As your reward, take this Technical Machine, but do try to remember what I have taught you." The Elder dismissed him, holding out a small disk. Silver nodded and took it from him, heading for the door.

"Wait!" I blurted, jumping forward and running after him, almost horizontal to the floor. Somehow, I managed to reach him without falling over, he didn't even look at me as he continued down the stairs.

Roughly, I pulled at his shoulder to make him stop and turn to face me. The glare I'd been forcing for quite a while suddenly didn't feel intimidating, as he didn't even flinch at me. "What, you didn't get a good enough look earlier?"

Red flushed in my cheeks, but I frowned even harder. "You lied to me."

"And?" He snorted; "Do I need a slapped wrist?"

I shook my head in disbelief; "How could you?"

"Quite easily actually, you're very gullible." He replied with frustrating ease.

"No," I growled through gritted teeth; "You stole that Totodile."

"I don't have to answer to you." He snapped back with his naturally lower voice, he stepped closer to me, now towering over me to try and intimidate me. I glare up at him, refusing to back down.

"I should call the police right now." I whispered, shaking my Pokegear in his face. My glare shifted to a smirk, and he tried to sidestep past me, but I blocked him.

As if I'd hit a nerve, or his patience had dried completely, he snapped into a burning rage, turning almost as red as his hair. "Now you listen to me-" He'd taken my wrists and shook me angrily, causing me to drop my Pokegear and squeal out, frightened. "-You have no idea what I have been through to get this far, and you are not going to stop me. Do you understand!" He bellowed the last part, making me flinch away and whimper. Cowardly, I nodded. He grunted and threw me aside, making me fall onto my knees and gaining a few splinters. Nobody had ever been violent to me like he had, and it made tears prickle at my eyes. I was naive, and young, this made no sense to me. I couldn't understand why I was so affected by it, I'd fallen over before, so being pushed wasn't so different...

"Why would you want to be that type of person?" I muttered, but I knew he'd heard.

"Because I don't have any other choice." He snapped.

I sat there, unsure of how to reply, or what to do to respond, I just watched him as he reached the exit, only to be halted by a Sage wearing the same clothes as Jin.

"Child," He began, and even from this far away I could see Silver fuming at this overused name; "you cannot possibly go out in that weather, you'll catch the death of a cold!" The Sage smiled; "You are more than welcome to stay here."

Silver frowned; "I'd rather continue with my travels."

"We cannot allow you to leave until the morning, we could bare it if something happened to you. After all, we are adults, and should take responsibility of you when under our care."

Seeing he didn't have a choice in the matter, he grumbled something unintelligible, and allowed himself to be ushered up one set of stairs again. The Sage looked at me funnily; "What are you doing sat there girl?"

Frightened still, I glanced over to Silver, who stared meaningfully at me. I looked down at the floor and mumbled; "Fell over."

"Well, I assume you're here for the night too." He stated, and I nodded slowly; "Come, we'll find you a room."

Hesitantly, I stood up and followed, staying behind the Sage so he was between me and Silver. The red head seemed amused by this, and he clearly wasn't oblivious to the cold and frightened aura around me.

"You can use that room." The Sage smiled, pushing the door open and allowing Silver in. He nodded and walked in, closing the door behind me, but not before he smirked at me one last time.

"And you can use this one, just down here. It has the nicest bathroom, which I'm sure a pretty young lady like you would appreciate." He grinned kindly at me, opening a door at the end of the second floor corridor and allowing me in. "Thank you," I replied meekly.

"Come and find one of the Sages if you need anything, food, clothes..."

I nodded and thanked him again, and closed the door. I turned to look at the modest wooden room, a little smaller than my own. It had a double bed, which I would have smiled at the thought of sprawling on if I hadn't been in a foul mood. With no other thoughts in my mind, I flung myself face first onto the mattress, then curled into the foetal position and cried.

It took me a while to get it out of my system, but whenever I got into the state, I always managed to find a solution. I would face this problem head on, and not stoop to his angry, horrible level. I was Soul, pure and kind, not cold and hard like Silver.

Jumping off the bed, I strutted out my room and to his. Outside his door, I hesitated, but with a long inhale of woody air, I clenched my fist and banged three times.


	4. Silver : New Things

**Silver - New Things.**

I growled, as if it wasn't bad enough I was practically imprisoned in this pathetic wobbly tower, but the Sages inhabiting it wouldn't leave me alone in peace. I ignored the door, and pressed my ear closer into the pillow. They just enjoyed messing with me, knowing I'd give in just to keep the quiet. That was one of my few weaknesses, my need for peace, and I couldn't seem to bring myself to iron it out.

Despite my lack of answer, it didn't stop them coming in. The light blinded me, and I shut my eyes tighter.

"Um... Silver?"

Resisting the urge to groan, I squinted my eyes open to see that girl hovering her head around the door, fingers clutching the edge as if she were ready to shield herself with it.

"May I come in?"

Didn't look like I had much choice. "You already are." I retorted bitterly, turning over to face the wall.

She forcefully giggled, though she sounded very nervous. I heard the door close, and it was dark again. I heard her step in a little further, slowly as if she were testing the floor for traps. I opened my eyes to see her faint silhouette slide down the wall to sit in a tight ball. She didn't have that stupid hat on. I sat up, knowing that my hair was standing on end but at the same time not caring at all.

"I'm not apologising." I insisted, folding my arms across my chest stubbornly.

"I know..." She replied quickly, awkward enough that even_ I_ felt a pang of slight guilt. "I didn't come to ask for one."

I stayed silent as I thought about that, and waited for her to explain. She didn't continue. I sighed and sat up; "What _do_ you want?"

It took her a second to talk, but eventually, after another annoyingly long moment, she whispered; "Why did you take Totodile?"

I met her gaze with my usual glare, she seemed to recoil away, so pathetic and weak. Still, she persisted with her questioning eyes that I opened my mouth without really thinking about it; "Because I'm going to be Champion."

"No..." She sighed; "I want to know _why_, not what you're going to do."

I hesitated; "I don't know what you mean."

Her eyes finally lowered to her lap, I couldn't see their colour, everything was so dull from the lack of light. "Why did you _take_ it? Why didn't you just ask?"

"I won't take no for an answer." I said without hesitating, getting a little irritated with her annoying questions.

"But you never tried." She sounded like she was about to cry, I had to clutch my stomach to stop myself from laughing, half amused, half nervous of emotions I'd never really experienced or seen before. Living with my family, the only emotions you really learnt was anger and hatred.

I kept my head hung, unsure of what to say. How could I explain it? ...More like, _why_ should I have to explain myself? She was a spoilt little princess who had everything handed to her on a silver platter. She would never be strong when she didn't fight for anything she wanted. I was a fighter, because I didn't have another choice, and determination was my adrenaline.

"Why do you care?" I hissed, now getting impatient. She made no sense.

She sighed slowly, just to infuriate me even more. "Because I thought we could be friends..."

Silence. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or lash out, so I just stayed frozen as my confused gaze met her hopeful one. Her eyes even glistened with tears.

"I don't think so." I was amazed at the way she looked surprised, recoiling in shock at my answer. What did she expect? Me to squeal with joy and run into her arms?

"W-What?"

I sighed, exasperated. "Trust only brings you to your downfall." Hopefully she would take the hint.

"That's not true." She insisted, though her voice was quiet and weak, she stared at me with an intensity that it made me feel quite cold, physically and mentally. "Trust is the only way to get stronger. Trusting yourself to take risks, trusting your pokemon to work their hardest for you and... And trusting friends because they'll help you when you need them."

I scoffed, and she looked almost hurt. For some reason, I felt the need to explain myself; "You wouldn't need trust without betrayal."

She nodded, smiling slightly, which made me realise she'd taken it completely the wrong way. "You have to trust that I won't betray you."

The way she said it, she made it so... Convincing. My instincts were screaming at me to push her away and tell her she was completely deluded to think I would let her be my friend, so I could wait for her to become a traitor once she'd used me to become strong and beat me to becoming champion. But... There was my other goal. To really defeat my father, and take down Team Rocket once and for all. I had been planning to do it alone, but the offer of having her at my side, even as a distraction was tempting. Too tempting...

"No." I spat, and her eyes wandered over me to meet my face again. I was sure to make my expression determined and slightly appalled. "I don't think that's going to happen."

"Oh..." She hung her head, then slowly stood up. "Okay then." She whispered, her voice dripping with pain. Even though it was dark, I could have sworn I saw tears. She headed for the door, and stopped close to the door to peer over her shoulder at me. "I'm sorry I disturbed you..." Then she slipped out the door, closing it with a gentle pull.

Out of impulse, I sprang for the door and nearly smacked into it. I stopped just short of the door, and carefully placed my ear to it. She hadn't moved, and by the way the door smacked my skull, I assumed she'd sank against it. A soft sigh muffled through the wood, then it was cut short by a short sharp gasp I assumed was a sob.

I'd never cried, aside from when I was an infant. I'd learnt very quickly that I received no response to my tears. It was a strange thing to hear, especially through a door. I wasn't sure how to respond, but my instincts did. I was uncomfortable, and a weird twist in my stomach made me want to vomit. I recoiled from the door and sprawled across my bed to wait for her to finish and go away.

* * *

I trudged down the stairs, after a restless sleep I'd assured myself was because of the terrible weather. My eyes barely opened, no matter how much I pressed my palm into them.

"...Thank you very much for your hospitality, Elder Li."

That voice, I'd be an idiot if I didn't recognise it. She sounded rough too, I knew she hadn't left my door for quite a while, knowing I wouldn't have the guts to open it and tell her to go away.

I turned the corner and she noticed me immediately, we locked eyes for a split second and hers dropped to the floor like a lead weight. Her 'Flo' looked over to me and let out a pathetic cry, as if it had been crying too.

"You are very welcome, Soul. Please take this too, I hope it will benefit you on your journey."

She nodded and took the disk like the one I'd been given, and thanked him meekly. "I'll be going now." She added, her eyes nervously flickering to me and to the door.

"Safe journeys, young one."

She walked out without looking back, and placed her hat on as she entered the rain.

I walked towards the door and stopped before the Elder. "I'll be taking my leave too." I informed him with a bow of my head. "Thank you." I added stiffly.

"You are welcome." He said politely, and hesitated before continuing; "I do hope you take my words into consideration. It will benefit you in..." His eyes drifted to the door; "more ways than one."

I nodded just to keep the peace, and walked to the door.

The rain soaked me to the bone within seconds, my hair that had been completely dry was now stuck to my face. I shoved my hands in my pockets and stared at the floor. The footsteps I followed were new, and already filled with rain water. I looked to the direction they were headed, but saw nothing other than the dreary fog I was walking into.

Pulling out the first pokeball I owned, her conversation rang through my head. _You have to trust I won't betray you..._ I released Totodile, who began waddling beside me with its big eyes staring up at me in confusion. It looked around for a battle, and I realised how devoted it was to me.

I looked back in her direction, and said to my pokemon; "Let's beat her this time."


	5. Soul : Irrational Behavior

Soul : Irrational Behavior.

I dusted myself off and ringed out my ever-wet hair. Even sheltered from the rain, I would somehow end up wet.

I was in a thoroughly bad mood. Not only had I caught this Team Rocket I kept hearing about sneaking down the well I'd passed by, I found they were the reason the Slowpokes had disappeared. I went down to investigate, receiving no help from anybody else, and took out several trainers teams with relative ease. Whilst their pokemon were weak, their numbers were many, and I'd find two at every corner, waiting for me. I'd double battle them, Flo and Furry now weary with exhaustion.

I reached their leader, a strange man with some physics-related name and an odd green hair style, challenged me. My pokemon, relieved that this would be the last of their training, put a little more effort in. Furry took out the Zubat with practiced ease, slamming its iron tail onto one wing and rendering it unable to evade effectively. I then called for a set of fury swipes, which finished it off quickly.

The man then released a Koffing, and I asked Flo to step in. The -now evolved- Quilava nodded and wandered into Furry's place. They exchanged nods as I returned my Furret.

It started with a smokescreen, which both me and Flo rolled our eyes at, and she set off running into the smoke with no worry at all.

I decided on trying our new move, better to try against this trainer than a gym leader and it go wrong. "Flame wheel!" Using the smoke like we usually did, she blasted out fire from her mouth, mane and tail, then rolled in them to create a large oval. The momentum pulled the smoke with it, revealing Flo about to crash into Koffing, who didn't have time to react. She crashed down on it, rolled over and headed for the Admin. He managed to jump aside, and she rolled up the round cave wall. Once her momentum had been beaten by gravity, she kicked off the wall, releasing the flames and heading for Koffing.

I nodded and muttered; "Quick attack." And the crash left the Koffing unconscious. I returned Flo and glared at the man. He grumbled some idiotic reassurances, and I told him to get out of the well.

After checking the Slowpokes were recovering, I headed for the exit myself. My feet were stomping, and to make matters worse, I spashed water all up my legs, and looking down to water, I found it was muddy. With another step, I slipped and cracked my head on the stone floor.

Today wasn't my day. So there I was running my fingers through my hair, spotting one Team Rocket grunt scurrying for the ladder. He climbed with ease, but left the bars all muddy.

Oh well, couldn't get any worse.

As I placed my hands into the mud and gripped the bars, I began climbing up. The mud was slippery, and I had to be extra careful not to slide off and fall. Hitting my head again could be the death of me from this height.

"I thought it was you."

I jumped and looked up, not at my feet which slipped as I squealed in shock. The light was blinding, but a pair of strong hands clutched around my forearms.

I squinted upwards to find red hair sticking to his face. How was it he _always_ found me? Had I done something wrong to deserve his horrible treatment time and time again?

My jolt had disturbed the bars, and they screeched in protest as the collapsed beneath me. My hands clutched to the underneath of Silver's forearms, and pressed my feet into the well wall. With a grunt of protest from the both of us, I managed to haul (and be hauled) out of the well.

Not realising I was up, Silver kept pulling, and we ended up sprawled in the mud again, I went flying over him and landed just ahead of him. Face first, of course.

I groaned and sat up, rubbing my hurt head and shuddering from the cold. Silver stayed lying on the ground, facing the rain as it beat down on him. A green skinned, blue spiked Croconaw stood beside him, patting him gently. Silver waved his arm to bat it away. I didn't expect him to assure his loyal, stolen pokemon. I pitied its poor existence.

"Thank you." I said politely, though he didn't deserve it in the slightest, I was not to stoop to his level.

He grunted, just as I expected.

I stood, no longer needing to be here. I turned and headed for Azalea town, where I would bathe and rest ready for a gym battle.

"Where are you going?" He asked in his deep, monotonous voice. I turned my head and sighed; "Azalea town." I began to walk again, and I heard him scramble up to follow me. Why I'll never know.

"Not going to challenge me today?" He asked nonchalantly, trying to figure out my mood, probably.

"No." I did not need his jeers about my strength right now, but I knew it was coming. He didn't even say anything, but I could see the glint in his eye as he looked at me.

"I've just wiped out a load of Rockets down there." I growled; "If you want a decent battle, you'll have to wait."

"I didn't say a word." He defended, staring at me with wide eyes. Had he never felt a cold shoulder before? He looked shocked. "Whatever." I spat, speeding up into a power-walk despite my tired legs screaming in protest. Anything to get away from him.

Of course, _now_ he wanted to follow me. He made no sense!

"What's wrong with you?"

I stopped short, and glared at him. My mouth opened, a little gobsmacked. I even laughed a little because I was that shocked.

"Hello? I just asked you a question." He pressed, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Leave me alone." I screamed at him suddenly, and he recoiled in surprise. I took the chance to start running, refusing to show that I was crying. No, it wasn't just because of him, I had just had a really bad day. I wanted out. I wanted a bath and a warm bed and my pokemon to rest so we could carry on with the life I'd set out for.

My feet stumbled as I fought through the numbness this stupid weather brought me. My head was pounding and I couldn't run much further. Silver ran past me with ease, and stopped in front of me. I couldn't even bring myself to stop, my legs stumbled, and I just crashed into him. He faltered backwards, but managed to keep us upright.

He stared at me nervously, and asked me if I was alright. I nodded slightly, but my knees gave way. "Uh..." He sighed, holding me up. I couldn't gain control of my body, and I was frightened of what was happening to me.

"I'm fine!" I squealed, more frightened of showing him this pathetic weakness, my body taking over against my minds will. I tried very hard to fight against the veil that was clouding over my eyes, and I gave a frightened glance to Silver before giving in and crashing forward.

* * *

I don't remember anything. My eyes fluttered open, and I saw wood. I shuddered lightly, and I could feel my skin was covered in goosebumps. It felt like it was burning, but at the same time I was cold.

A sigh breathed over me, and it took me a second to register I was with somebody else. My eyes slowly moved along to search for the breeze, and found him leaning over me.

"Sss..." Silver. I realised, and he frowned down at me.

"You have hypothermia. Do you not know how to look after yourself?" He barked, making me flinch, slowly. "In fact, don't answer that. I've had you slurring at me all night." He sounded extremely annoyed, and I couldn't find the words to apologise. "You're just lucky I was here."

I nodded gently, and began to cry uncontrollably. He didn't like it. I wasn't sure what to do, not much I could do anyway, in this state.

"Are you cold?" He asked with no concern in his tone. I shook my head.

"Hot?"

I continued to shake. I was both. He sighed in exasperation.

"Where are we?" I managed to force myself to say.

"Just a small cabin, it's empty, I slept in it last night." He replied. We stayed quiet, and eventually he added; "You should be okay soon, I managed to warm you to normal body temperature. You should be able to move properly soon, and for heaven's sake put some proper clothes on."

I just nodded. After all, he was the smarter one. I was the one with hypothermia.

"Thank you." I forced, this time sincerely. With terrifying thought, I realised I could be dead right now.

"Quilll?"

I looked down to see Flo hovering over me, she was sprawled across my torso so I would warm up. Hence why I was burning. It was the only thing I noticed though.

"Where are my clothes!"

He stared at me as I glared at him. "They were soaking."

"So you undressed me!" I shrieked, but ended up coughing.

"Calm down you idiot. Your pokemon did it." He spat; "And if that's the kind of thank you I get, I won't help you again."

I faltered, managing to stop my coughing. "I know, I'm very grateful."

"What?"

I sighed, clearly the words I formed didn't sound right. "Thank you." I repeated, trying to convey it with my eyes.

He grunted, and stood up. "I'm going to get something to eat. I presume you'll be able to dress yourself while I'm gone?"

I guess I earned that one. I nodded quietly as he left the cabin. I didn't hear rain as the door swung closed, which I was surprised at.

"Va...La." Flo grumbled as she trotted off to retrieve my clothes which were hung near a fire she had obviously made. They were clean, thanks to Croconaw, I guessed. They were now dry too, all except my hat, which I expected was Silver's choice.

I slipped out of the sleeping bag, and pulled on my red shirt. Flo handed me my jean shorts, which I pulled on quickly and enjoyed the warmth that lingered in them. My head ached, and my body had a constant shudder, but I was able to move better than before I passed out. I wandered around the cabin, stretching my limbs, and found a bathroom with no running water. Thankfully, Silver had left Croconaw, who had been waiting for me to get changed in here.

I smiled, so he did have some nice in there. He was thoughtful when he wanted to be.


	6. Silver : Unimpressed

**Silver - Unimpressed**

I trudged back to where I'd been for the second time, something I'd vowed I would never do during this journey. Still, I brought food and supplies for her like a loyal pokemon. Another thing I swore would never happen to me.

Bitterly, I stepped into the abandoned cabin to find her sleeping bag was empty. My eyes flashed to the clothes hangers by the fire, they were empty too.

"Lava..." A timid voice came from the corner of the room, and light was emitting from the Quilava belonging to her. It shuddered at my gaze as I questioned its new strength.

"Why are you glaring at Flo?"

I turned on my heels to see her stood with her back against the washroom door. She clutched her dirty, stupid hat to her stomach and had a similar cautious look in her eye.

I shrugged and replied; "I didn't know it had evolved."

She seemed to take my pitiful, unnecessary excuse. In fact her face lit up; "We've been working really hard!" It sounded like she wanted to continue, but stopped herself short, and fought to hide the blood rushing to her cheeks. I took no notice and looked to Croconaw who had walked in.

"Totodile evolved too!" She added to cover up whatever mistake I couldn't care less about.

The water type nodded coldly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Which it was.

"You sound better." I stated, slightly annoyed by the melodrama that I could see was clearly over exaggerated now. Her brown eyes brightened as she looked up at me and sighed; "I _feel_ better, thank you."

I grunted. This was a waste of my time, there was no way she had hypothermia and recovered in a night. Suddenly, she began coughing again, and blushed under my sceptical look.

"Sorry..." She muttered. I raised an eyebrow; "For?"

"For screaming at you... And being a hindrance." She kept her head hung, ashamed. I said nothing in reply, I didn't throw it in her face, but she could see when she peeped up at me that I wasn't impressed.

She pursed her lips, but finally decided to speak her mind; "and thank you... For helping me on two occasions." She looked back down at the floor and smiled gently; "I probably wouldn't be alive now if it weren't for you."

I snorted, how cliché. It made me feel slightly nauseous.

"If you ever needed a favour, Silver. I'll be right there, I promise." She continued, and sighed; "And... I won't tell Professor Birch about you. I owe you that much."

As if she hadn't already. I watched her for the flickers of emotion that flashed across her face. I couldn't really understand any of it, but it suddenly occurred to me that she was being sincere. It was an odd thing to come across, as it was very rare for me to experience. I felt uncomfortable, and frowned at her, shying away from this rarity.

"...Silver?"

I looked at her, and she was frowning too. My stomach churned and once again she was stronger than me. I was first to look away.

"Is there any need for me to be here any more?" I growled, thrusting the bag in her direction. I saw Croconaw jump in the corner of my eye, and hurry over to me.

She hurried over too to take the bag from me, but did not look in it. "Oh... Well I... Thank you." She whispered weakly, not looking at my harsh eyes. I nodded and took my leave, refusing to look back at her. My instincts told me to look, but my gut had a strange dropping feeling as I thought of that sound of her cry muffled through the wooden door. I would not give in to her, she would not control me with her strange female emotions.

"Naww?"

I looked down at my pokemon, who was staring at me sadly. I nodded to reassure it, and then looked into the forest, recognising a few of the landmarks due to passing them for the third time in a short period.

"Silver!"

I stopped still, and hesitated to turn around. I could hear her running for me.

"I want to battle you!" She called, and I had to smile. I turned my head to the side so I could see her in the corner of my eye. She was holding her Quilava close, and grinned at me eagerly.

I sighed; "You're going to freeze and end up in hospital. I'm not helping you again."

She shook her head; "not while I'm battling. I'll buy a coat as soon as I get to the next town." She smiled even more at an idea she had, then explained; "and if I win, I want _you_ to buy me my coat."

I laughed once and turned around, Croconaw joining with me. "And if I win?"

"You get to prove how strong you are!" She giggled. They were the right words to say to me and she knew it. I smirked and nodded, Croconaw stepped forward. "Three on three." I decided, and she beamed; "Okay Flo! Lets show Silver how strong we've gotten!" She cheered, allowing the -too large to be carried- pokemon leap from her arms and stand in a ready stance. Croconaw shuddered with excitement.

"Start off with Flame Wheel!" She said, flicking her hand in that way I saw most female challengers do. Flo cried out before leaping forward and rolling onto its back, flames blasting out of the red spots to propel it forward. My pokemon braced itself, knowing how to proceed with direct attacks now. It held its paws out ready, and held the pushing fire ball back, waiting for my command.

"Water gun." I growled, knowing this would be a critical hit.

I smirked at her pitiful "No! Flo!" As her pokemon tumbled onto its back, dripping from a harsh attack.

"Now Aqua Tail!" I commanded, and Croconaw leapt forward, twisting to slam its spiky tail covered in streams of water it had formed from the vapor around it.

To my surprise, the fire type managed to struggle up. Soul cheered it on with fierce, pathetic words as its legs shuddered to hold its weight. This wouldn't take long.

"Water gun." I sighed with no energy for this battle.

"Swift!" She said quickly, and Flo opened its mouth to release blindingly fast stars that passed the water gun and smashed into Croconaw, causing it to falter and stop the attack. It stumbled back, regained its balance and glared to the Quilava, who smirked back. It was like they remembered their history, becoming fierce, life-long rivals that would never end until one fell.

I knew I had to win this. I took the direct approach; "Crunch!" I called, watching as Croconaw's powerful legs pushed off the floor with spring like strength, a grace about it even though it wasn't the most attractive of pokemon.

"Smoke Screen! Get out of there!" She yelled, and I was impressed on her evasive technique. I hated to admit it, but she'd gotten better at battling. I knew how to counter this now, and Croconaw was already running for it. "Scary Face!" I yelled, without really needing to. My pokemon nodded and leapt at the outside of the smoke cloud, and began to glow an eerie red colour. I couldn't see properly, but the attack would glow through the smoke and do two things; terrify Flo, and illuminate it ready for us to land a physical attack.

"Crunch it now!" The water type locked its focus onto the Quilava, and continued its jump into the cloud, headed straight to the target.

"Defence curl!" I heard Soul faintly cry, she would have also seen the effects of scary face, which I was using to my advantage. With lowered speed, the fire type foe could not defend itself in time. It wailed in agony as I could imagine the sheer pain caused by the jaws of Croconaw. With another jump, it cleared the majority of smoke from the field, and emerging from the floor was a fainted Quilava, grumbling and shaking in pain.

"Flo!" She cried as she ran over, ridding the field of the remnants of her useless defence. "Are you okay?" She cooed, scooping up the exhausted pokemon. I snorted, it would be fine. It was just weak.

Taking a small gulp, she walked back to her side of the field and pulled out a pokeball. "Lumi! Go!" She smiled with confidence as I scowled at yet another stupid nickname. I wanted to smack my hand to my forehead when I realised what I was now up against. A pathetic Skiploom. It bounced with cuteness, and floated around in the light breeze.

"Water gun." I started, testing its strengths before wasting my time. To my surprise, it used the air pressure to float aside and dodge the water gun with agile ease.

"Bullet Seed!" Soul commanded, throwing her arm upwards and around in a spinning movement that the Skiploom copied exactly so the seeds sprayed in an intricate and difficult pattern to dodge. I scowled, I was battling a bloody coordinator. Great.

"Leer." I said, and Croconaw jumped aside to throw a quick glare and then had to move again. "Again." I said, and Croconaw continued with that pattern, glare and evade, glare and evade until the seeds finally caught up and landed. That didn't matter though, my plan had worked. Skiploom had wasted a lot of energy by chasing Croconaw, and had landed due to the pressure it had been using to fire the seeds. It was my chance to knock out another one.

I clenched my fists as I saw another victory ahead of me. "Ice Fang!" My water type nodded and took off with speed. Skiploom tried to jump back, but with its defence lowered dramatically, the jaws belonging to my pokemon locked around its weak pink body. I nodded, and a mist began erupting from Croconaw's mouth, it froze around the teeth and they sank in more. As if to feed on its prey, the Crocodile pokemon threw _Lumi_ across the field and watched it skid across the grass.

Soul's face dropped as she squealed; "Lumi!" I could have choked when it responded, lifting the flower like head towards the sun. The girl's face lit up again as she nodded; "That's it! Synthesis!" It began to glow with incredible light that I knew wasn't the attack ordered by Soul. She stopped smiling too, realising the same thing as I had. The light became too intense to look at, and I wasn't sure what it was. Eventually, it began to move up to where the flower head had been, but it had been replaced by a cotton spore. The light orb was aimed at Croconaw, but I had stupidly been focussing on the fact that _Lumi_ was now a Jumpluff. It fired its attack, and it landed thanks to my idiocy. Croconaw rolled back and just managed to stand. That was a Solar Beam, and a critical hit. My pokemon should not have been able to stand, and yet it had.

"Yay! Lumi you evolved!" Soul celebrated, making me snort. I wasn't going to waste time letting her enjoy the moment. I looked to Croconaw who was thinking the same thing. I nodded, and it set off to lock its jaws around the newly evolved pokemon.

"Plah plah!" I smirked as the Jumpluff has no idea what was coming for it. Soul opened her eyes from her cheering and her face dropped; "Lumi look out!" It turned just in time to see Croconaw's wide mouth lock around it for the second time.

"Ice Fang." I concluded, and the second round had been won by me. Soul returned her newest member of her team and sighed; "Oh Lumi, you did so well. I'm sorry I let you down."

I decided to ignore the comment, it annoyed me so.

She took a few seconds to collect her thoughts, then glared at me; "Don't think this is over Silver." She warned, and I had to smirk; "It's not yet, moron."

She decided to ignore my comment as it clearly annoyed her, too. Taking another pokeball, she did an odd spin on the spot as she sang; "Pippin! Your turn!"

_Pippin._ I rolled my eyes. It was a Pichu, and an odd one at that. Its ear was a funny shape. A pathetic, weak and deformed Pichu named Pippin. I snorted.

"Don't underestimate Pippin because she's small!" She shouted at me. As if I could focus on the size. This was hilarious! She'd had enough of my humoured expression, and punched towards us; "Volt Tackle!"

I faltered, and that was what she'd wanted. I'd never heard of such a move, and it was powerful looking, mainly because I couldn't see the Pichu. It began running at Croconaw with impressive speed, then exploded like it had burst into flame. Instead, electricity crackled around it in a huge aura, trailing behind and leaving a trail of fizzled grass. This was clearly a move to be dodged at all costs. "Jump up, Croconaw!" I commanded, hopeful it wouldn't be able to move upwards. Fortunately for me, it continued to run past where my pokemon had once been. Croconaw landed in the same spot once the Pichu had passed.

"You can get it this time!" Soul cheered happily, and I turned to see Pichu had veered at such speed we hadn't realised it was heading back. Croconaw was out before I could realise what had happened.

Growling, I returned my pokemon. It should have been watching carefully, I wasn't its guardian. I contemplated my next move. This strange Pichu was not to be underestimated, like Soul had advised. It was speedy, agile and clearly a power pack. I could use Gastly, but it was slow. Or my other pokemon, Zubat, who would be weak against Pichu, but was also speedy.

Knowing I would have to give both of them a go if one of them failed, I sent out the latter. It flapped manically, waiting for my command.

"Swagger!" Soul said as she waited for me. The Pichu smirked quite menacingly for a tiny, cute thing, and Zubat became infuriated. I rolled my eyes as it began dashing around aimlessly. "Supersonic!" I barked at it, and it looked straight at me. With all its might, it began screeching a horrific sound at me, and I suddenly realised why pokemon became confused by it. "Not at me!" I yelled angrily as I held my ears. It began spinning around and eventually Pichu became effected. Soul had been distracted and was laughing at me, but now we both had confused pokemon. I groaned.

"Leech life!" I growled, now a little annoyed by my stupid excuse for a flying type. It flew straight for Pippin, but it started dancing around dizzily, and narrowly dodged.

Soul tried an attack; "Thunder Shock." The little pokemon tried, but was too confused to aim properly, it ended up tripping and hurting itself instead.

"Snap out of it!" She begged, but I would just confuse the pokemon again anyway. At least Zubat's attack had been increased now it was angry. I focused on physical attacks; "Wing Attack!"

It nodded and focussed on the strange electric type, and followed it as it swung towards it with glowing wings. Landing the attack, it swooped away in time to miss another badly aimed Thunder Shock.

"Now bite!"

I wasn't surprised when it crashed into the ground. Just sound was enough to give Pippin focus, and it began to run at it. Soul seized the chance; "Volt Tackle!" Immediately, Pichu burst into electric flames, smashing into my pathetic pokemon who hadn't yet recovered. It didn't recover, either. How ridiculous, I scowled as I returned yet another pokemon. Pippin was barely tired, but at least I had the advantage of having the only unconfused pokemon now. Gastly emerged from my final pokeball, and grinned at the humorous sight. Soul glared at it, but Pippin was too confused to notice.

I decided to play on this confusion; "Night shade." Gastly disappeared quickly, leaving behind an illusion of itself as it snuck up behind Pippin.

"Look out!" Soul cried, and the Pichu responded quickly, trusting its trainer. Gastly narrowly missed. It turned and managed to suck Pippin into its gas stomach. It nodded to me, and I nodded back. Without verbal command, it used curse. It flew upwards, and then straight towards the floor. There was something sharp appearing in the landing spot, that sunk into the Pichu, and Gastly slipped into the ground with its menacing ghost-like characteristics. It emerged close to me, looking a lot weaker now. It was worth it, Pichu screamed in agony as the first effect of its curse kicked in. Soul stared at it in horror whilst crying out its name sadly. "Pippin please! Use thunder shock!"

I smiled; "Night shade."

The electric attack landed, but on the illusion. Gastly appeared behind it and slammed into it with a ghost type tackle. It disappeared once again and appeared behind the rolling Pichu. "Sucker punch." I ordered with a flick of my wrist.

"Quick Pippin! Pain split!"

I opened my eyes to see Pippin glow with a bright white light as Gastly's bright purple light smashed into it. It backfired, and Gastly cried out. Pippin emerged replenished, having shared all its pain over to Gastly. Thankfully, the curse kicked in once more, this time more forcefully.

"Night shade." I said once more, it had worked last time.

"Nasty Plot!" Soul cried, and Pippin planned its evasion quickly and with deadly aim. With its special attack raised from the previous move, it leapt above Gastly, who watched in awe and anticipation.

"Finish it with Thunder Shock!"

And that it did. I growled forcefully, enough to make Soul flinch, as I returned my last pokemon. I had been defeated by _her._ Again. She didn't even celebrate, but I would follow through with my promise. It just meant I had to spend a little more time with her, when all I wanted to do was wallow in anger alone.

* * *

**Wow. It's been a while since I've written at all! Well here we go. Another chapter. Of course, Silver is starting to change. Reluctantly. :P  
Plus the smallest of small hints. It's a start at least.**

**Oh, and I recently got a Celebi, so I took it to the shrine on HG and I have to add this to my fanfiction. **  
**Poor Silver! For those of you who don't know, you can watch it on youtube. If you don't want spoilers for this fanfiction, I wouldn't watch it yet though. If you don't mind, type in "Celebi event Silver/Giovanni" It should come up.**  
**So so sad. :(**

**I now want a Pichu called Pippin, don't you? =D**

**Thanks for reading guys!  
**


	7. Soul : Material Girl

**Soul - Material Girl**

I shivered once more under the rain as we reached Goldenrod; "Wow. It's so beautiful!"

He did nothing but roll his eyes at me, I paid no mind, he'd been like it the whole journey. However, I did turn to him; "Silver, why are you being so moody?"

He glared down at me from his freakishly tall height; "because I lost to _you _again." The way he spat at me would usually make me feel down, but I was far too cheerful that I was getting a coat to take offence.

"You can't say I'm the only one you've lost to?" I replied, trying to look on the bright side, and failing ever so slightly. He looked away, slightly ashamed I think; "No. Just you."

"Wow!" I squealed, perhaps a little to happily; "That's amazing!" I babbled, excited to actually get some conversation out of him. He grunted at me, and pointed to a shop; "that's a clothes shop."

I nodded back to him; "yeah, but can't we go to the department store?"

"I couldn't care less." He insisted, but it just made me smirk. He loved the attention really. I wandered along the busy paths, being bumped into by so many people that I had to walk right on the curb of the path. Silver walked behind me, and I could feel his glare on the back of my head.

I turned one more corner to see the hugest building I'd ever seen. I waited for Silver to catch up in his sauntering walk, but was shoved into the road suddenly. I flinched away from the honking of a horn and managed to jump aside in time for the small car to speed past. Water splashed up my legs as it drove past, and I made it worse by jumping into a puddle. It may have been a tiny car, but it was going at enough speed to have caused me a lot of damage. My heart was racing, and I hadn't realised only mere seconds had passed as a hand snatched at my wrist and yanked me back on the path. I turned my head to look at Silver with a murderous and protected glare on his face. People around him were staring.

"Are you mad? Do you want to get run over!" He hissed loudly, angrily enough for people to continue away in embarrassment. I blushed and looked down at our contact; "I didn't mean to, I was pushed accidentally."

He shoved my hand away for it to hit my hip. I shivered at the cold water that had covered me. He shook his head in disappointment; "Let's just get the coat and then I can go."

I sighed and watched him turn towards the remaining crowd. They parted under his harsh, cold eyes. I apologised to them, and hurried past to follow him into the large building.

"Welcome! May I help you?" A sweet looking woman smiled a sickeningly beautiful smile. She eyed me and Silver happily. I nodded and wandered over to her, but Silver answered for us; "No, we can find them ourselves." He continued walking without any manners to the perfectly polite assistant. I turned and apologised to her and she waved her hand; "I get it a lot, boyfriends don't like being in here." She giggled, assuming our relationship was like most boys and girls who came in here. I didn't bother correcting her, that would be embarrassing, I smiled and nodded, then hurried up the stairs to follow him.

"You can say thank you, you know." I muttered, walking just behind him.

He snorted back at me; "so could you."

I rose an eyebrow; "For?"

"Saving your life a third time." He growled, clearly talking about the car incident.

"I jumped out of the way myself." I retorted, but then paused; "But thank you." I decided arguing would get me nowhere, may as well just set a good example. He nodded slightly, not looking back at me as I tripped up another step. We came into the women's section of the store, and he finally turned to me and gestured to the clothes; "Go."

I grinned, no amount of Silver's foul mood could bring me down when it came to shopping. I took out a pokeball and released Flo for another female's opinion. We set off right away.

"What about this one?" I pulled out a blue rain coat with a white lace bottom, Flo smiled, but Silver cut in; "It's not warm enough."

I sighed and shoved it back. If he was paying, I guess he had a say in this. "Well what do you approve of?" I waved along the rack of coats. He shrugged and shuffled off, uninterested. Flo sighed and continued flicking through herself.

Green... Pink... Orange... I didn't like them. I pulled out a brown one but Flo didn't like it. Sighing with anger, I spun on my heels and searched for something else. I wanted a long coat so it would look like I was wearing tights, but I didn't want it to drown me in material, I wanted to move easily in it. I pulled out another blue one, that might have matched my dungarees, but once again, Flo shook her head.

"Will you hurry up?" I got frequently from an irritated Silver who had honourably stuck around to keep his end of the deal. Maybe he had changed from the boy who had stolen his first pokemon.

"I'll be done soon." I insisted. He growled something incoherently, and I turned around to stare at him, now at the end of my patience. "Will you quit it? It's not my fault you lost!"

"As a matter of fact it is. If you hadn't called me back and challenged me, I wouldn't be here right now stuck with you in the girl's department shopping for a coat because you're too stupid to have brought one in the first place!" He ranted, loud enough for a shop assistant to come over.

"Is everything alright?" She sweat dropped, realising we weren't paying attention as we glared at each other. Eventually Silver looked away, because I knew I could hold my stare longer, and muttered a; "yes we'll be done soon... Thank you."

I blinked rapidly, had he actually taken what I'd said to consideration? The young lady looked shocked too; "You're welcome..." She stuttered; "Don't hesitate to call me if you need assistance." He nodded politely back to her, and she blushed and hurried off.

"What are you doing staring at me? Find a damn coat!" He growled again, shoving my shoulder towards the rail again. I chuckled and rubbed where he'd pushed; "Alright alright, keep your wig on!" My eyes suddenly flashed to his hair, that was as usual, wet and plastered to his face. It was such a beautiful colour, and reminded me of my... I looked down to my shoes, and as if Flo could hear my thoughts, she was already tugging the arm of a red coat.

I wandered over and pulled it off. Silver snatched it from me; "That one's fine let's go."

It was a good job I liked it, because he was already striding for the counter. I looked to Flo and sighed, she did too. By the time I'd returned her, Silver was coming back and shoved a bag in my face.

"There, now I can go." He glowered at me, and it made me feel like the most useless creature on the planet. I looked at the bag stupidly, and he shook it at me. Seeing that I made no move, he threw it at me, and my reflexes caught it. By the time I'd looked up, he was halfway down the first flight of stairs.

Then I realised I hadn't thanked him.

"Silver!" I cried, running after him quickly, accidentally knocking into someone, but after a quick apology I was in the lift.

"Which floor madam?" A handsome man a little older than me asked. I smiled; "Ground floor please."

"Certainly, going down." He spoke very eloquently, and his navy blazer uniform was very flattering on him. He smiled at me gently, then looked away awkwardly under my stare. I needed to sort that...

The doors slid open, and Silver was there, passing me to head for the main exit. I looked to the lift attendee, and nodded to him; "Thank you!"

"You're welcome." He replied, and I was off again.

"Silver!" I yelled, gaining a few annoyed glances as I rushed past them loudly. He ignored me, but I was fast. I stopped in front of him, to his annoyance. "What?" He snapped, trying to side step me. I kept blocking him until he paid attention.

"I wanted to thank you."

"Fine, now move." He pushed me, but then I began striding beside him, having to power walk to keep up with his long legs.

"Well I was wondering when we can see each other again?" I asked rather bluntly, and realised the implications as soon as I'd said them. He stopped abruptly and frowned; "What?"

Thinking quick on my feet, I replied; "Well you want a rematch, don't you?"

He seemed to buy it, and I prayed he did. He hummed, then nodded; "Of course, that battle was a fluke."

"Sure it was." I retorted, playing on his competitiveness. His face went red with rage. Through gritted teeth, he said; "Well I'm staying in Goldenrod. I have some things I need to... Do."

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, but let it fly. "Okay, well I'll probably head back after I've got more badges anyway. So I'll find you here then."

He nodded, turned and walked in the opposite direction to me. Sighing, I pulled the coat out of the bag. Seeing the reciept, I immediately felt guilty, but it was so nice I couldn't bring myself to take it back. I pulled the tags out and tried it on. It was snug around my waist, and pretty black buttons across the front, and slightly puffy shoulders covered by a pretty collar. It flared from the waist, then tucked in right at the bottom, ending at mid thigh. The sleeves too were bell bottomed, and I looked very classy.

All I needed was a new hat now. Sighing, I turned back to the department store and headed up all those stairs again.

* * *

**Short, boring chapter. But! This is the middle of the fanfiction. Ish. Which means we're getting closer to the shippiness, and closer to the climaxy action! Woop!  
Btw, I am trying to get out as many chapters as I can before November, as I will not be writing anything at all due to NaNoWriMo. **


	8. Silver : Welcome Home Honey

**Silver: Welcome home honey.**

Darn it's cold. I pulled my coat around my torso a little tighter and blew onto my hands as I ventured back to the exit of this stupid new hideout. To make matters worse, I had no pokemon to defeat them any more.

Of course, when you think things can't possibly be any more irritating, something you've tried so hard not to think about pops back to say hello.

"Hello!" She grinned at me whilst she turned in her warm coat. The one _I'd _paid for back in Goldenrod. With a scowl, I snapped; "What do you want?" I looked over her to find she had actually listened to me and brought thick black, woollen tights and some black patent shoes. She also had a new beret, that was also black, but with a red bow going across that I recognised from that stupid cap. She looked adorable, which made me scowl harder. How could _she_ beat _me?_

"Well I'm here with a friend, we're trying to stop the noise that's bothering the pokemon." She told me with full confidence in me. It was quite a shock she would give away something to somebody she barely knew.

"The one with red hair." I replied, and though it wasn't a question (I had a feeling she'd be assosiated with him somehow considering they'd showed up in the same secret place) she still answered me; "Yes, that's Lance."

I knew very well who it was. He'd just beaten the crap out of my team. I nodded slightly to show I'd registered what she said. She tilted her head to the side and smiled sweetly; "Do you want to help?"

"Not particularly." I grumbled back, not willing to say I had no pokemon to help with.

"Oh." She muttered; "Well I have to carry on, I just finished with the trainers in here, then I was moving on. We're looking for the password. You don't know anything do you?"

"The Admin with the password is in that room." I jerked a thumb to the room I'd been heading for before Lance had found me, defeated me, and walked off in the other direction.

Soul's face lit up; "Brilliant! We'll get it out of him!"

Now this I wanted to see. I stepped aside for her to pass. I followed her as she walked to the door, and nodded gently when she looked to me for confirmation. After that, she ignored me, and set into a determined stance. To my surprise, she tackled the door down without help of her pokemon. Petrel, too, was shocked.

"Who are you?" His eyes wandered over her in a way that made me want to battle him right then and there, but he hadn't seen me yet as I waited round the corner of the door.

"I'm Soul, who are you?" She shouted back with such ferocity that even _I_ flinched.

Petrel smirked; "You don't know who _I_ am? I am Giovanni."

My blood boiled to the point where I was too furious to say anything than; "Liar!"

Both Soul and Petrel jumped at my sudden outburst, and turned to look at me. "Ahh. Hello Silver." He eyed me eagerly, as if I was some sort of link to the person he adored so much. I was nothing to him though, he would not return for me.

"You know him?" Soul glared accusingly at me, and I realised she didn't know. Petrel did too.

"Just go." I growled at him, as he smirked at me.

"What? No!" Soul jumped in the way of him; "You're not leaving until you give me the password!"

He looked down at her and pushed her towards me. She tripped, but picked herself up and brushed me away.

"Flo!" She cried, releasing her now enormous pokemon. The Typhlosion glared to Petrel, who backed away, fumbling for a pokeball. "Raticate."

The two pokemon stared each other down, but Petrel kept his eye on me. I made no move as I watched Soul set to work. "Flame Wheel!" Her pokemon jumped forward just as agile as it had been in its smaller forms, only the wheel was far bigger and more powerful. It crashed into the Raticate, who responded with a Hyper Fang. Flo roared in pain, but didn't even limp when it got loose.

"Now Swift!" She moved her arm a lot more angrily than I remembered. She was less flouncy, I realised, as she flew straight into a Flamethrower. The Raticate didn't stand a chance.

"Return!" They both called together, and Petrel tried to back away, only to be stopped by a Furret. _Furry.  
_

"Going to tell me the password yet?" She asked coldly, her eyes shooting daggers to him. Growling, the Team Rocket Admin released a Zubat. I smirked, she would know how to deal with one of those, surely.

"Leech life!" Petrel took his speed advantage and the Furret suffered.

"Sucker Punch." Soul ordered. The Furret started running and parried with the Zubat's Wing Attack. Finally, she got impatient; "Thunder!"

The surprising electric move landed on the flying type, and she kept her pokemon pumping the electricty until Zubat was out. Petrel's face faltered.

"Hail Giovanni." Petrel muttered, and slipped away quickly. I rolled my eyes, that would not be enough. Soul seemed pretty happy anyway, and she was off to look for Lance.

Why this bothered me I wasn't sure. I knew it wasn't jealousy, I just didn't like him. His bleeding heart made me want to vomit, and the things he said to me struck a few nerves. Of course, I wasn't going to let this bother me, I'd help Soul get into the main machinery room if she was going to stop it.

"Soul!" The voice echoed down the hallway as that very same Dragonite that had taken out my whole team was just finishing another team. From the rate their pokemon dropped, I would be surprised if he had taken out all of Team Rocket with that one dragon type.

She turned to him and grinned, running up to him; "I have the password!" She exclaimed, and he nodded appreciatively; "Well done!"

She practically glowed under his praise, her cheeks going as red as my own hair. I rolled my eyes, but he spotted me as I did so. "Oh, you again."

"This is Silver-" She began, but was interrupted by his suddenly cold tone; "We've met." I met his glare with one of my own, and he stuck his nose up and turned back to Soul. My fists clenched as she stared back at him with her grey eyes like an adoring Poochyena.

"We'd better get moving, we need to stop that machine." His voice became authoritative, and she nodded, following him down the corridor without looking back at me. Still, I followed as if she had beckoned me, a strange pull that gave me the urge to watch this battle that was inevitable.

The Dragonite scouted ahead loyally, checking back on its trainer every so often. It had continued this around a corner, and had obviously flown past a Persian statue before it realised that it had triggered an alarm. Lights all around flashed a red, and cameras zeroed in on us as several Rocket Grunts surrounded us. We were backed up to a wall, Lance standing protectively in front of both us, to my annoyance. They wouldn't dare touch me anyway.

"You really think we didn't know you were coming?" A voice laughed and echoed down one of the many corridors. It sent shivers down my spine, as all the hairs on my body stood on end. Instincts screamed at me to wheel around and run.

Several grunts stepped aside and bowed their heads as _she_ passed. My body quivered slightly every time her stilettos snapped onto the tiles. Soul noticed, and looked at me curiously as Lance took a step forward; "We're here to stop your plans."

As if she wouldn't already know. She laughed and waved a hand; "Good luck with that."

"We'll fight every one of you until we shut down that machine!" Soul growled in her squeaky voice.

_Her_ eyes flashed over to Soul, and she beamed with delight when she spotted me stood by her; "Hello darling."

I looked to the floor defiantly, refusing to reply. I could see Soul frown at me, and Lance might have been too.

"Do you know her?" She asked me, her eyes doing that thing she always did when I tried to stare her down. I blinked rapidly, ha, nervously!

A cackled came from behind her; "Why, don't you see the resemblance?"

I flashed my glare up at _her_ as she smirked back menacingly in the way that was far worse than my own. Soul looked over to her as I reluctantly growled; "This is my mother."

* * *

**Yayayayay. Now this is what I mean by twists to the game plot. **

**Sorry this one's short. I just had to stop there. :D**

**Also I apologise for another time jump. It is pretty much follow on timeline for the next few chapters. Sort of. Plus, shippiness is just starting to really show now.  
**


	9. Soul : Admiring

**Soul : Admiring  
**

I stared at Silver and took in the emotions that flashed across his face like a TV flickering between two different channels; Angry, terrified, angry, terrified... I wanted to ask him what was wrong with the appearance of his mother, but her being a Team Rocket Admin answered that for me.

"Who are you and why are you affecting the pokemon?" Lance demanded beside me, my attentions turned to the red haired women whose smile resembled Silver's almost exactly. Only Silver had that look of determination and a much more deep past in the reflection of his eye.

Her lips parted as she laughed, her white teeth glistening in the low lights of the corridor; "The name is Ariana, and what we are doing is none of your concern." She turned; "Take him back to the main head quarters. I'll deal with him later." She nodded to her own son. The two grunts she'd ordered hesitated, and she reassured them; "He's no threat."

"I don't think so!" I stepped aside, covering Silver completely. He didn't seem too impressed, but he didn't have much choice. There was no way I was going to let him become one of them. It may have been in his blood, but he was no bad guy.

Ariana smiled at me; "Sorry baby. Now get ready to get thrashed!" She laughed mercilessly, releasing an Arbok. The grunt next to her released a Drowzee. I grinned and released Flo, knowing I could take care of them myself. To my surprise, Dragonite flew right next to my fire type. Lance smiled at me; "You really think I'm going to let you battle two to one?"

I beamed back; "Thanks!"

"Ladies first." He beckoned towards our team, but Ariana cackled; "Don't mind if I do! Poison Sting, Arbok!"

Lance cut in; "Protect both of you!" He then looked to me to signal my attack. I nodded eagerly; "Flame Thrower!"

The nameless grunt was nudged by Ariana, and he shuddered under her glare as he yelped "Psychic!"

The yellow psychic type rendered my special attack useless as it fizzled out mid shot. Lance was quick to cover me; "Thunder!" His loyal dragon pokemon released enough energy to momentarily turn out the corridor's lights. The sudden feeling of breath along my neck made my hair stand on end, but I didn't turn as I called; "Flame Wheel on Arbok!"

"Crunch!" Ariana responded, stopping Flo in her tracks as it clamped its sharp fans into one paw. Panicked, I squealed; "Flame Thrower!" Flo, though she was the one in pain, responded quickly and powerfully, blasting off the snake pokemon.

"Take it out with Dragon Claw!" Lance butted in, to let Flo back off and recover a little. I smiled weakly at him as I realised Drowzee was out too. His Dragonite was unbelievably strong, and hadn't even broken a sweat despite taking out several of Team Rocket's grunts.

A hand suddenly took my shoulder, gently so I wasn't alarmed. "Listen to me, once you've got out of this battle, you need to get out as soon as you can." Silver muttered into my ear.

"Are you not going to stay and battle?" I snapped back at him, then shouting to the battle; "Follow Dragonite with Swift!" Silver had waited to reply; "I think you'll do alright without me." He stated coldly, and I glanced at him to see he was glaring in Lance's direction bitterly. Maybe when they said they'd met, there was a bit of an argument. I wasn't going to ask.

He turned to leave, and I grabbed at his hand; "Well where are you going?"

He smirked at me; "Got to stop Mother now, don't I?"

My shocked expression turned slowly to a smile as I whispered; "Keep yourself safe then."

He nodded and tugged out of my grip, but made no move in the other direction. For once, he couldn't see to break away from those weird connections we kept having. I'd depended on him to be the one to look away, but here we were, unable to blink as I stared into his vibrant red eyes. He swallowed hard, and took a step closer to me. It was strange, did he feel that pull too?

"Soul!" We both turned suddenly, just in time to watch a Gloom tackle Flo to the floor. Lance was glaring at us, then he turned to order his Dragonite. Ariana watched her son curiously as he turned and ran.

"After him!" She screamed, throwing her pointed finger in my direction. Flo ran to my aid two remaining grunts came to a halt as we blocked them. I glanced over to Lance, who was trying to hold off two pokemon with just Dragonite. I didn't know if he had any other pokemon, and I doubted it, seeing how strong Dragonite was. But even a powerful pokemon couldn't hold off two opponents coming from different directions.

The two trainers who stood in front of me, frowning, but I could tell they were worried. I shook my head; "I've taken out many of your team mates, do you really want to battle me?"

The one ran off, but the other one beamed; "Yes please."

Flo rolled her eyes at the same time as me, and we took off tackling yet another Zubat. "Flame Wheel!"

"Dodge it!" The grunt barked. The Zubat was speedy, but no match for Flo. She rolled up a wall and kicked off with one foot to leap off it and slam into the flying pokemon. They landed on the floor, and Flo skidded close to me.

"Now Flame Thrower!" I punched my hand towards them.

"Air Cutter!"

The two attacks collided, forcing an explosion to occur. Of course, we'd trained through smoke. Flo ran through with ease and used swift to finish another battle. They were all exactly the same in here.

The smoke cleared, and the grunt had gone, along with his Zubat. Ariana too was returning her final pokemon, her tag partner out. Dragonite looked barely hurt.

"Lance! We've got to go!"

He looked over to me and read the panic in my eyes. Silver was doing something, and he wouldn't have warned me if he wasn't doing something dangerous. My other red-headed friend ran in my direction as he yelled; "Your plans have been foiled, Ariana!"

She cackled; "It doesn't matter what happens to this place, our tests were a success. You'll come to appreciate Team Rocket's true power soon enough. Enjoy yourself while you can..." With a loud, echoing shriek of laughter, the lights went out and back on. She'd disappeared. Having tampered with the electrics several times now, there was a flicker as they struggled to continue lighting our path, then gave up to leave us in total darkness. A hand wrapped around mine.

"He must be destroying the main machine. We need to get out while we can." Lance muttered to me, and I could almost hear admiration in his tone. He tugged, but I did back; "But what about Silver?" I cried; "If it's going to explode, shouldn't we help him get out?"

"I have no doubt he'll get out himself. He must know this place better than us, now come on!" He demanded. Somehow I didn't think Silver knew the Team Rocket hideouts as well as Lance suspected, despite his connections. Still, I allowed Lance to pull me along the corridor, Flo leading the way with her bright, sharp flame.

Though I was hoping Lance was right, I couldn't help but worry. I had to rely on the fact that Silver was no martyr. He was very much in this for himself, it was obvious he'd used us as a distraction while he got the work he'd been here for done uninterrupted.

A rumbling sound suddenly emerged from behind us, and grew louder, with added low bangs. We stopped and turned to see the flames from a far away explosion flickering in the distance. It wouldn't be long before the explosions reached us. Lance pushed out legs harder as he yelled and pointed to a door; "Hyper Beam!"

Dragonite complied, blasting the golden shrine open to we could escape. This made me panic, had Silver not got out? If he had, he wouldn't have closed the heavy block in the way of us, would he?

I'd told him to stay safe. I had to pray he kept that promise.

"Soul!" Lance yelled at me, he was already out of the hole and dangling through to help me up.

I turned to Flo; "Go!" She nodded and leapt through with ease as I took Lance's hand. He tugged me out roughly with the help of a blast, and wrapped an arm around me to push me faster. The 'shop keeper' had fled, and we left the shop quickly too. Trying our hardest to get away, we got caught up in the monstrous explosion that had followed us. I squealed as we leapt over a fallen tree and hid behind its bark as Dragonite protected us. Lance crouched over me, drowning me in his cape and blinding me so all I could do was listen to the havoc we'd caused.

"We did it." He sighed as the rumble and crackle of debris spilling everywhere came to a stop. "You're amazing. I couldn't have done this without you."

He moved to sit next to me, panting slightly, but looking as glorious as he had been when we first met at the Lake of Rage. He kept his eyes on me, causing me to blush as he pulled a lock of hair behind my ear.

"Silver finished them though." I murmured, feeling the need to stick up for him. After all, he had just finished the base completely.

Lance grunted, suddenly angry. He looked away from me, but I left it at that. I slumped next to him, relaxing against the log and stretching my aching muscles. He took my hand firmly and smiled; "Thank you."

"You're welcome." I whispered back, closing my eyes. I could feel him watching me fore quite some time, but I ignored it and stroked Flo who had sat next to me.

"Soul, I don't like him." Lance blurted. I blinked quickly and sat up a little to look at him. It was clear he'd been thinking deeply. I could guess who about.

Still, I tilted my head to the side; "Who?"

"Your friend, Silver." His name was spat off Lance's tongue, and he looked away in disgust as he mentioned the relationship.

I sighed; "Not many people do."

"Then why do you?" He snapped, frowning; "He doesn't treat his pokemon well at all. I doubt he treats you any better, from what I saw today."

In my eyes, Silver had been a lot better today than usual. He had not once pushed me aside like he usually did, and had been nice enough to warn me of his intentions. He could have left us for dead if he felt like it, but he'd chosen not to. Frowning, I replied; "He's just introverted. You saw the way he was with his mother."

Lance nodded slightly, but I knew he didn't agree; "That gives him no right to be rude to you."

Sighing, I looked down at my lap; "He isn't always like that."

"Why are you defending him, Soul? He's a haughty, ill-treating trainer, and I saw that when we battled." I could see he wasn't shouting at me, personally, it was just that he was so passionate about the welfare of pokemon.

I tried to calm down the anger; "Okay, he's not the... kindest of people, but he's learning."

"I don't believe this," Lance widened his eyes; "You admire him."

I nodded sternly; "Yes, I do. He's my rival, and without him, I wouldn't be as strong as I am now." I refused to be weak when he despised it so. I would gain the respect I'd been craving for so long. Lance noticed the fire in my eyes and sighed; "The road ahead of you is long and difficult, he won't make it any easier."

"And that's what will make me stronger." I repeated, standing up after him and standing my ground.

"I see." He looked to Flo, then to his Dragonite; "I would not give up either."

I nodded gently, relieved to have that argument past us. He took my hand gently and kissed the up side of it. "Until we meet again, Soul."

"I look forward to it." I smiled weakly, "Take care." I said as he climbed onto his Dragonite. He saluted to me; "You too."

And with that, he swept off into the night, not once looking back as he left me here to take care of my pokemon.

* * *

**Well woohoo! Here comes the SSshipping! =D**

**Oh and some Soul/Lance, but that's obviously more one sided. Sure, she was impressed by Lance, but who wouldn't be. *Fangirls***

**And this is where the game plot really kicks in, which I'm sure you'll agree. Which means my plot is going to get so much more explosive and... Shippy. :3**

**I think I may have knocked Silver slightly out of character a little to early, but I'd like to point out it _is _Soul's POV here, and she sees the best in everyone. **

**Also, quick warning, there will be another time jump, now that I look at my main plot again. But after that, there will be no time jumps for about four chapters. ;D  
**


	10. Silver : Stupid Male Hormones

**Silver : Stupid Male Hormones  
**

Putting two and two together, plus knowing my mother, was enough to know I needed to go back to Goldenrod. Of course, I was right. The radio I'd shut down back in Mahogany town was a big enough hint in itself. I spotted one grunt standing out in the open as he stared up at the radio tower. Another passed him, and nudged him as he did so. The more mature looking one scolded the stupid one, and he followed them down a back alley.

I slipped into the shadows to find their newest hideout. It couldn't have been more obvious. Underground. I'd checked there myself, but no Rocket members had been there then. Now it was empty of civilians, and now a plotting place for the grunts. I could hear a few men jeering as they usually did. I'd grown up accustomed to their ways, as only one thing controlled them, and it wasn't the boss.

"C'mere deary, let me take a look at you." One laughed, but hissed as I heard a slapping noise. Another man then chuckled; "She's a feisty one. I like that." The woman in question squealed as she, from the sounds of it, was yanked towards one of them.

"Hey now, I saw her first." The first one growled.

"She prefers me, look." A slight pause, then an eruption of laughter. I could hear her struggle, and I wouldn't have taken notice if it wasn't for the screech that came echoing down the corridor; "Get off me you perverts!"

It was her. Flashes of several women who had received this treatment ran through my head, and all I could see was her to replace them. She wasn't old enough for that, she wouldn't be able to fight them off, either. They sounded a lot more mature. "Don't you dare!" She screamed even louder; "Or I swear I'll kick your ass so hard you won't know what's happened."

I turned around the corner to see one of them had locked their arms around hers and lifted her, whilst she lashed her legs towards the other. What infuriated me most was that she wasn't wearing my coat, no. She was in their uniform. High white boots and a short black skirt so I got a good flash of her upper thigh as she kicked. The top was cut short too, and that made them look amused and... Eager until one noticed me enter the room.

"What are you doing in here?" He barked, recognising me instantly. I jutted my chin out stubbornly as Soul growled. The first grunt dropped her to her knees and turned to laugh at me; "Here to get beaten again, Silver."

"Get your facts straight." I snapped; "I'm the newest Admin here. I could take you both out with one of my pokemon." Thinking on my feet, I improvised her out of there. She scrambled to her feet. "And she..." I pointed to her; "Is mine."

Her eyes looked fearfully up at me, as if I would actually do what they were about to do to her. I wasn't sure if she was acting too, or if she believed mine.

"What makes you think we'll believe that?" The second one retorted; "You betrayed your heritage."

"And I took it back. I see you don't fail to remember the connections _I_ have." I smirked, watching as their confidence faltered. I was the son of their highest authority, nice to know that status was actually useful for something.

They looked to each other and then nodded back at me. They stepped backwards, away from Soul. Though it made me feel quite sick, I purred seductively to her; "you, with me."

The two grunts seemed to believe it, egging me on with whistles and cheers as I grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. Looking around, I noticed a small door and dragged her to it. She stared at me with wide eyes as I chucked her into the cupboard and closed the door behind me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" I hissed; "Take that stupid outfit off."

"No!" She cried loudly, but it would help with this façade we were pulling. I grabbed onto the top and stupidly pulled on it without really thinking twice. I guess I deserved the slap that came after it. "Get off me!" She shrieked.

"What is wrong with you?" I growled as my left cheek burned, she had one hell of a right hander. I took her wrists and shook them. Her whole body trembled, and the stupid uniform hat slipped off. Her lip quavered as she looked down at my feet; "I didn't know what to do."

I kept quiet as she shook her head, turning away from me. "I tried to stop them..." Her eyes were wide with fear as she shuddered away from whatever memory she was reliving.

And then she shocked me by crashing into me, pressing her wet eyes onto my shoulder; "They took Ethan, Silver! I didn't know how to stop them! There were so many..." The way she clung to me made me realise I wasn't going to shake her off any time soon. Reluctantly, I placed one arm across the back of her shoulders and patted it. I'd never embraced anyone in my life, and this felt extremely awkward. "Why?" I coughed, trying to get her to move away, but all she did was turn her head and whisper from my shoulder; "They want you. They thought I would be able to lure you in."

Ha, did they really think I'd gone that soft? Of course, my Mother barely knew me at all. She'd seen me communicate with Soul and assumed we had some sort of attachment. Well, we had now apparently. Her arms locked under mine, and she pushed herself close to me like she needed the protection. She was going to go after him, somehow, I realised. She had gone as far as lowering her standards to becoming a Team Rocket member. Yet by my side, we'd walk straight in without the need of pathetic disguises. This could be exactly what I needed to get in.

"We'll find him." I assured her, pressing my arm into her, copying her movements so it seemed like I was comforting her. "Yeah?" She muffled into my coat, sounding hopeful.

"Of course. We beat them before, didn't we?" Even I was shocked by the optimism in my voice. She pulled away to look at my face; "But we don't have Lance."

I forced myself to keep calm, refusing to be riled by that name. Instead, I shrugged; "We're stronger now, we can do this without him."

Slowly, after calculating my sudden change of heart, she nodded and smiled weakly. I looked down at her and scowled at the pathetic outfit that was obviously designed by my mother. "Get out of that." I commanded; "We don't need disguises."

She nodded, kneeling so she could pull out her real clothes from her bag. She then looked up at me; "Turn around then."

Blood flushed at my cheeks as I did as I was told. I stared at the wall religiously, fighting the urge to just look around. Stupid male hormones.

"Silver?" She whispered after what seemed like forever. I didn't turn, just in case. Instead, she came to me, and whispered into my ear; "Thank you."

I turned my head to look at her, she was so close to me, invading my personal space. I craned my neck away and swallowed; "For what?"

"Saving my life again."

I scoffed; "I don't think they were going to kill you." Both of our faces faltered as we realised what would have happened. "You're welcome." I added weakly, my face paled.

Her hand gripped onto my elbow and turned me. She was back into the coat I'd brought her, but not the hat. I nodded in approval, and went to leave, pulling out Feraligatr's pokeball. She tugged on my elbow again, but she was looking at our feet.

"What?" I snapped, and her eyes flashed up to my face. My annoyed mood was suddenly drowned out as her watery eyes met my dry ones. Being so close to me, I could see how enchanting and silver they were. So monotonous, yet they sparkled in the smallest of lights, particularly when she was tearful. I blinked a few times to try and break free of her, and she released me by closing them. She came closer to me and... Well that was unexpected. I recoiled back, but I didn't have far to go with the wall behind me. A small minority of my head wanted my hands to shove her away and demand what she was playing at, but I certainly wasn't going to stop her. Why wasn't I? This was totally uncalled for, I hadn't asked for this, and yet here we were, locked in a romantic embrace.

As if I had no choice in the matter, my hands wandered to her waist and wrist, gripping her so I could turn her and force her to the wall. It was like instinct had told me to be the one in control, and yet I had no control at all. I wasn't choosing to do anything, I was solely focussed on kissing her. This was exactly what I was preventing just ten minutes ago, I wasn't supposed to be this close to her. Yet my hands ran through her dripping wet hair as she clutched at my face, never letting me move. The way tears rolled down her face made my stomach churn, didn't she want this? This had been her choice. I crushed in closer to her, and she sighed with pleasure. I opened my eyes to look at her face, her eyes were tightly shut, and her hands had curled up at my cheeks as she focussed on our mouths. With all my might, I forced myself to slow down, pulling away gently to see her face properly. She didn't open her eyes immediately, and it made me feel sick that she didn't feel so elated like I did. I'd never felt such a buzz before, such adrenaline rushing through me as the blood rushed from my face.

Well there was a first.

"Sorry..." She muttered to me, breath short and recovering. I blinked at her. For once, I couldn't read her at all. The one time I really needed to, too.

"Why?" I asked incredulously. Her eyes flashed open, and she couldn't read me either. Suddenly, having her beside me to defeat Team Rocket wasn't a tactic, it was support. We would help each other, she was no longer just a convenience. Still, I wouldn't tell her that if she hadn't worked it out for herself. I picked up Feraligatr's pokeball, which I'd dropped at some time, I couldn't remember, then stood up and looked to her. "Let's go help your friend." I said abruptly, but the uncontrollable smirk on my face caused to smile as she took my hand.

Stupid male hormones.

* * *

**...Yayayayayayay. You have no idea how long it took for me to get that bit right. But I was soooo excited to write it! X3**

I'd like to thank my good friend Zach for helping me with the kiss, as I had a lot of questions to ask. I was worried I wouldn't get the male thoughts right for this sort of thing, so the emotions are credited to Zach. :3

**Oh and yes, I really did try to keep Silver as in character as a romantic tsundere can be, so I apologise if I fail miserably. **

**Five more chapters to go. :3  
**


	11. Soul : Frightened Partnership

**Soul : Frightened Partnership  
**

I pressed my hand into his, squeezing it to silently tell him I was here. He reached down to pick up his pokeball, then turned to me. He placed his hands over my cheeks, and pressed his thumbs on my eyelids, pushing down so my make up would run. His hand found mine again as I opened my eyes.

"I need you to scream." He whispered to me. I frowned, but realised what _should _have been going on in here. We'd been quiet a while. He pressed his other hand to my mouth and nodded. I breathed in through my nose, filling my lungs and nodded to him. He winced away in preparation, and I rang out like a siren.

The way it echoed in this small dressing room, no wonder Silver recoiled from me. His hands snapped away from me, and it made it worse. Of course they would hear it outside, they jeered and shouted crude words as Silver suddenly -in the only way I can describe- tackled me. His shoulder slammed into my stomach, forcing my scream to stop and an arm wrapped around me as he lifted me to flop over. I suddenly heard him slam a foot into the door, and realised what he was doing. We'd have to work on his communication issues, I wasn't psychic...

Playing along, I flailed my legs slightly and thumped at his back, light enough to not hurt him, but enough to make a sound on his hollow ribs. I was uncomfortable, but I held myself so I could breath and scream; "No! No, no please!" Several times over. The two grunts tried to help him as I clung to a door, and I managed to boot one in the face. Good. I hope it hurt. I could feel Silver laugh quietly under me. I swore at one of them, using words I hadn't uttered once in my life, but I felt it was necessary to today. It made Silver laugh harder.

He began sprinting up the stairs, faster than I thought possible with me adding weight, and I could barely breathe. "Can't you put me down?" I finally managed to let out, but he hushed me quickly as a couple of grunts went past us, looking at us funny but saying nothing.

As soon as we were out of the underground, he dropped me with no compassion, took my wrist and began running.

"Should we call the police?" I panted as he led me somewhere.

He shook his head; "They'll block us off, we have to get in there as soon as we can."

"Where is there, precisely?" I retorted, sceptical about this whole scheme he'd apparently come up with in a matter of minutes.

He rose an eyebrow at me, but then answered; "The Radio Tower."

Ahh, of course! It was so obvious once he'd said it. They'd been testing radio signals for the big one. Hence why I'd managed to trace them back to Goldenrod.

We didn't have to do much to get into the building, but the receptionist had disappeared, only to be found tied up and chucked on her side. I tugged in her direction, but Silver tugged back; "We'll have to help her later, we have to stop them now or we won't get past."

"But she-"

"Soul!" He yelled at me, letting go and running towards the stairs, a grunt was standing in his way, but he tackled him to the floor before I could blink. They struggled a bit, until he released his Sneasel and it smacked the grunt over the head with its claw. He was out cold and crumpled to the floor.

"Silver!" I hissed, chasing after him. He continued to climb as I growled; "I really don't like the fact you just used a pokemon on a human!"

"They certainly weren't thinking of your feelings when they were going to rape you." He barked back, glaring at me with hatred and disgust. Not at me, but the image of what could have happened. I paled, I had managed to block that image out, but he'd said it so bluntly, and I felt physically sick.

"Soul?"

I shook my head, fighting the nausea; "Just keep going." I ordered, pushing at his shoulder. He nodded, then turned to his Sneasel and ordered it to be ready.

I took out a pokeball, ready to defend myself too as we reached the next floor. I scanned the room, a group of grunts sat around the table hadn't noticed us yet. A girl in the corner huddled around her fainted Jigglypuff. It seemed to have taken out quite a few people before it gave in though, as many were asleep around her. She stared at me with frightened eyes, and I met her with my own scared look and nodded gently to her. She slowly nodded back and then looked to her pokemon.

"Sneaaaas!"

A freezing cold blizzard billowed around the room, forming ice around several grunts to stop them from attacking. The ones further behind them had to run around, releasing pokemon that were far stronger than the usual Zubat and Ekans. Ariana had clearly prepared them.

I backed up, and Silver did too, standing across me to protect me. Only I bumped into someone before I hit the stairs, and they took my wrist. The strong hands spun me around and had me twisted awkwardly enough to squeal in pain.

"Miss me, sweetie?"

I shuddered, opening my eyes to see the grunt I'd kicked. He still had blood dribbling from his nose, browning liquid running to his lips. I decided to make him hurt more, thrusting my knee forward and leaving him to coil around himself and topple down the stairs. Fortunately for him, a few more grunts had been there to catch him, and he advanced on me again.

Stepping back again, I came back to back with Silver, who didn't move. "We're going to have to take them all out." I muttered, counting those on my side, about six. I guessed Silver's side would be roughly the same.

I flicked my pokeball, and Flo stood before me. She roared defensively, stepping one leg back, ready to pounce. Her red patches glowed, and sharp, controlled flames burst out into a spiky collar. They released far weaker pokemon than the second floor grunts, which could only mean this task would get tougher.

A hand took mine as I shuddered, and he squeezed gently to assure me.

"Blizzard!" He barked angrily, setting off into his battle. He wasn't releasing a second pokemon, so he obviously knew it was best not to yet. I grinned at his determination, and called; "Flamethrower!"

The Zubat managed to fly away, but two of the three Ekans took the attack, unable to evade.

"Swift." I shouted, throwing my hand up to the flying types. One was struck critically, and fainted instantly, but the other two managed to fly. I reeled out more orders, and eventually managed to help Silver with his tougher team. Flo and Sneasel had barely broken a sweat, they weren't very good tactical trainers, only good because of their numbers. Silver turned to me; "Ready?"

I nodded eagerly, we could do this. Ethan would be alright. I looked to Flo, who smiled, baring her sharp teeth as her collar began burning brighter than it had ever done before.

"What is she doing?" I asked, my eyes widening, but then squinting as her flames grew brighter. I fumbled for my pokedex, and faintly managed to see that she had learnt Blast Burn.

Silver nodded, smirking as he shielded his eyes. "Let's go." He said, turning for the next flight of stairs.

Flo stopped and dropped to all four legs as she ran after me. Sneasel ran ahead, ready to do as before.

Only that tactic wouldn't work, they'd seen what had happened, and a Houndoom was ready to counter that. Flo blocked the flamethrower with her own, and we set off into battle again. She stood in front of Sneasel, and I cried; "Blast burn!"

May as well try it now, I decided. She began glowing, blinding all but us, who were hidden behind a dark type. Sneasel looked to Silver, who muttered; "Blizzard."

As Flo charged up, the ice type attacked the four pokemon in front of us; The Houndoom resisted naturally, a Golbat dropped to the floor, but struggled upwards. The Arbok wasn't taking things to well and a Gloom fainted immediately. Flo finished all but the Houndoom with her attack, and Sneasel finished up with a slash across the canine pokemon.

I strode over to the grunts, Flo at my side and glared at each of them one at a time to show I meant business. "Where's Ethan?" I bellowed, but none of them responded. In the corner of my eye, Silver appeared and walked up to one. He took the grunt's collar and shoved him against the wall. "Petrel?" He asked, and the terrified grunt's eyes flashed over to a room. I had Flo rolling and bursting into a flame wheel before Silver had dropped the young man.

The door did not hold us back, and Petrel looked quite shocked at our break in. He noticed who we were, and smirked. "Nice to see you again."

"Where's Ethan?" I repeated, clenching my fists. He looked at them, then back to my face; "Who's that then?"

"Flo!" I screamed, coming to break down point. The way he looked completely blank drained ever single dreg of hope in my body. Flo noticed my desperation, and ran towards him, putting her love for me before our morals as she tackled him to the floor.

"Where is he?" I cried, about to lunge forward myself, but I was pulled back. A pair of arms coiled around me and dragged me toward the door, but I pressed my heels down and refused to be moved. I tried to kick back, but as soon as he let me go, another two pairs of hands took my arms.

"Silver!" I yelled, but suddenly something green flashed in my face, and I felt a blade pressed to my throat. A Scyther.

Silver turned to see too, and froze in his paces at this predicament. I hyperventilated, trying to clear my thoughts. Ethan was what we were here for. "Get him, Silver. Help Ethan!"

He took my words the wrong way, and ordered Sneasel to lock around Petrel too. He then glared at my captors; "Let her go, or you lose your boss."

In my peripherals, I could see them exchange look. I didn't dare move, the Scyther was already pressing harder. I whimpered in pain. The other one smirked; "I don't think you're in the place to compromise, little boy."

He clicked his fingers, and Petrel gasped out what could be his last breath as Sneasel clamped tighter. Flo stepped forward a little as she worried for me.

"Let her go." Silver ordered again. I gulped, but it was painful. I felt my flesh rip against the sharp edge. Warm liquid tricked in one slow river down my neck.

"Please," I begged him; "Just help Ethan!"

"Typhlosion!" He glared to my pokemon; "Blast burn! We'll take them all out if we have to!"

Including me? What, was he crazy? I gasped, but he looked back over to us; "Don't think I won't. She means nothing to us."

Flo nodded, glowing brightly again. I began shuddering uncontrollably, the blade sawing painfully slowly through my flesh as I felt the two grunts let me go.

"Scyther!" The one yelled, and it let me go and pushed me to the floor. I gasped uncontrollably while Silver and Flo worked together to battle the speedy bug type pokemon. Type and sheer power was on our side, and I managed to look up as the green pokemon was returned from its crumpled heap. Sneasel dropped the Admin, who was wheezing for air, and returning to a normal colour.

A pair of hands tried to help me up, but I recoiled away and shrieked; "No! Get off me!"

"Get a grip, Soul. We need to find M- your friend." He held out a hand to me, and I took it swiftly.

We headed for the door, in search for another Admin or Grunt who could give us answers, but Petrel had recovered and began spitting insults; "You're pathetic, both of you. You denied your own heritage, Silver. You could have been great, but you're a worthless nobody now, and Giovanni will take me as a brother before he takes you as a son! He always told me he was disappointed in how weak you were."

He spoke like that of a worshipper, and this was what had annoyed Silver, I think. He turned on his heels, and my quick thinking had my arms looped around his as I fought against him. He snarled obscenities to the strange Admin, but I eventually dragged him from the room.

"Silver! We're here for Ethan! We need to keep moving! Please Silver!" I cried, but he wouldn't listen. "We'll never defeat them if you get riled by their words! You're not weak, Silver. Don't listen to them!" I persuaded, and it seemed to have hit a nerve.

He stiffened, and stopped struggling. I felt I could let him go, and circled him so he could see me. His eyes went straight to my stinging throat. His mouth opened, but he was still angry, so didn't say anything.

"Ethan." I pleaded, clasping my hands together. He inhaled slowly and glared over my shoulder, Petrel had already scampered over somewhere, coward.

"Please?" I whispered, the adrenaline, the lack of hope and its void replaced with worry was overwhelming, and my tears rolled over my lower eye lid.

He slowly nodded; "One more floor."

* * *

**Sorry, I know it's been a while. I had planned on finishing this before NaNoWriMo, but I've had the day off today, so I wrote this for you now.  
So the plot is finally kicking in, I will be sticking to the main plot sort of, from here, for a while any way.**

**Yes, Team Rocket are a little more violent now, but it wouldn't be as dramatic if I simply made them battle. *Yawns*  
**


	12. Silver : Combatting Temptation

**Silver - Combating temptation**

Damnit, I need to calm down. My hands were still shuddering in their fists, my knuckles protesting from the tension. She looked to me with her cool silvery eyes and smiled weakly, but she looked weak. Her neck wound wasn't deep enough to be fatal, but blood was still shed. She noticed me staring at her neck, and her fingers touched at the wound. I wanted to stop her, but the red liquid was already on her hands. I knew what would happen.

The moment she looked, her legs buckled from under her. I would have rolled my eyes but I was a little busy catching her. It was only blood for heaven's sake. Flo was quick to react too, but being further away, I held her up.

"No, you go ahead." I nodded to the stairs as I lifted Soul up onto her legs. She was already coming around a little, but her head lolled onto my shoulder. "Wake up." I ordered, giving her a little nudge. She tried opening her eyes, and groaned, but took her another minute before she was fully conscious again. We started for the stairs, and Flo began running up them.

"Blast burn." I ordered.

I felt her chuckle woozily; "I swear she's my pokemon."

I tried to smile lightly back at her, from the look on her face, I failed. I ended up saying something sarcastic to make up for it; "You're doing a fine job of controlling her."

"True." She said, lifting her head off of me.

"Sleep Powder!" I heard from the room ahead of us. I shuddered at the voice, and so did Soul.

I flicked my hand in the room's direction; "Ice punch." I muttered to Sneasel. It ran ahead, jumping over Flo as she collapsed in front of the door, asleep.

As we approached the room, Sneasel was smacking a badly burned Vileplume for a fatal blow while she glared over to us.

"Hello son." She said in that sickly sweet voice that made me sweat. It meant she had something up her sleeve. I nodded back, as Soul squealed; "Flo! Wake up!"

Mother smiled, her new pokemon, a Honchkrow, flying beside her; "Dream eater."

"Blizzard!" I yelled; "Take it out!"

Flo whimpered in its nightmare as all kind dreams were ripped from her mind. Sneasel managed to distract the Honchkrow, but mother had other ideas. "Arbok! Fire Fang!"

"Return, Flo!" Soul was changing her pokemon, I was distracted and Sneasel suffered for it. Honchkrow swept in with an Astonish attack.

"Blizzard." I repeated, knowing it would hit both pokemon while it was two on one.

"Poison tail!" Mother called to her Arbok, and it loyally sprang for its foe.

I turned to Soul, who was rummaging through her tiny bag. "Any time today, would be good." I growled, looking to see Sneasel be smacked across the room. "Focus Punch!" I growled before the ice type could even stop skidding. It leapt against the wall behind it, and with its quick, strong feet, it leapt towards Arbok and landed a critical hit. It staggered to stay upright, but managed to.

"My my, you are a big boy now. I'm so proud." She taunted me, eyeing my Sneasel up. She nodded to her Honchkrow, and it swept towards my pokemon, blazing in a purplish hue.

"Pippin!" Soul choked, finally throwing a pokeball. It collided with Honchkrow with a Volt Tackle. The explosion was colossal, and we both smirked. We'd gotten used to working in thick smoke.

"Iron tail!" She yelled before me. I added to the offence; "Ice punch!"

The physical attacks billowed the smoke away to show Honchkrow down for the count. We focussed on Arbok to finalize the fight.

"Hold it down!" I commanded. Soul nodded next to me; "then finish it with Thunder Shock!"

They carried out the ordered attacks like they'd been partners all their lives. Arbok couldn't do a think, and didn't try to resist unconsciousness.

"Impressive." Mother said, she hadn't ordered anything from her pokemon since that smile graced her lips as she looked at my pokemon.

Soul had not noticed this, instead, she was already stepping forward; "Where's Ethan?" She yelled, that high pitch that offended my eardrums also made mother wince. Seeing that Soul was advancing, mother backed up toward some stairs. She grinned, her teeth sharp and shiny compared to her smooth, blood red lips. Like that of a Vampire, she certainly lived up to the monstrous reputation.

"Pippin!"

"No." I grabbed onto Soul's wrist, seeing she was about to attack. Mother took the opportunity to start running up the stairs.

Soul turned to me and growled; "She knows where Ethan is."

"You're not hurting her." I warned, why I would protect the one who'd taunted me all my life, I didn't know. It felt I owed her something, for giving me life, at least.

Soul's monotonous, liquid eyes swam as she watched me squirm. I hated when she read me like that. "Fine." She muttered; "I won't hurt her, but only because I know I couldn't hurt my own flesh and blood either."

Oh I could hurt her, easily, just not somebody else. I didn't bother explaining as she tugged from my grip and began to run for the stairs too. Sighing, I nodded to Sneasel and began running again.

"You know..." Mother cackled from the floor above as she hung her head over the banister. She was still running, and it looked like she was heading for the top floor. "I could talk to your father, when he returns. I'm sure he'd forgive you. You could become one of us, Silver. We could be so strong."

I laughed loudly, and I heard Soul sigh with relief.

"Your little girlfriend too, she'd be a great sidekick for you." She taunted, and Soul pressed faster. She was disappearing around the corner before I hit the next flight. Mother continued; "We could fix her pretty little neck for her."

"Where _is_ my Father?" I demanded, my voice echoing. I knew she'd hear me.

"We don't know. That's why we're here." She sounded honest for once, Soul had stopped to wait for me, wrapping a scarf around her throat so it stopped bleeding. She nodded to me and took my hand so we could climb faster. It seemed like forever, and even with no grunts to battle now, I was exhausted when I reached the top. Soul, however, didn't even pant. She was heavily focussed on the door my mother had slammed. She kicked it down with no assistance, and screamed; "Ethan!"

"You need to work on your stamina, Silver." Mother sneered, now stood behind another man. His hair was a strange dirty blue colour, and a Houndoom stood at his side. He smirked far more sinisterly than the woman stood beside him, and that I had to respect. "I've heard so much about you, Silver. Welcome back."

"I'm not back for a social visit." I growled, and Soul nodded next to me. "We're here to stop you!"

Mother giggled falsely. "She's here for the boy."

I guessed they were talking about Ethan, the way Soul looked at him confirmed my thoughts. He wasn't even tied up, but he was heavily beaten, he just lay there. It made me feel sick, and I didn't know him. Soul looked like she was about to cry. She started to run for him, but I held her back. "It's a trap!" I realised the second I held her, because mother rolled her eyes; "I'm sorry Archer, I taught him well."

"A little too well..." He growled, flashing a glare in her direction. She recoiled a little and stepped back into the shadows. "Forgive me..." She muttered.

"No matter... Houndoom." He didn't even have to order it, and that was why I didn't react. I was in utter shock as it took out my Sneasel with one fire fang, even though we'd work on its weakness.

"Thunder shock!" Soul jumped in, covering me. She then looked to my mother, and nodded. She was telling me to get to her.

"Have you called him yet?" I yelled over the crashes and cries of the pokemon. Archer glared at my mother, who flinched away a little further. He then looked back at me; "Yes. He should be here soon."

The battle continued, and Pippin was looking after herself pretty well. I released my Feraligatr, who blasted towards Houndoom with an Aqua jet. It landed before Houndoom could move, and then it was running for my mother, under my commands.

The battle stopped when it picked her up and rested its jaw at her neck.

"Let Ethan go, and we'll drop her."

"You dare use me as a bargaining tool? Your own mother?" She shrieked, but didn't dare move. Feraligatr kept a firm eye on me as I kept my focus on Archer.

He met mine with a steady stare; "Go ahead. She means nothing."

"What?" Mother yelled even further.

"Do not play bluffs with me." I warned.

His eyebrow rose; "Are you sure it is me who is bluffing?"

I growled under my breath, I was never good at poker. He smirked, thinking he'd won. He hadn't noticed yet as he continued to taunt me; "You are no killer, Silver. I can see that in your eye."

"Neither am I, but I'll do this." Soul barked, swinging a large metal pole she'd ripped from a wall with the help of her now awake Typhlosion. He dropped to the floor instantly, but he continued to breathe. "That's for hurting Ethan!" She growled, bursting into tears as she turned to her friend. I decided to leave them be for the moment, he was whimpering in pain as she lifted his head. I didn't want to be involved in the awkwardness.

I looked to my pokemon, my mother in its jaw. She was watching me curiously; "Why do you turn your back on your family?"

That was a simple answer; "Because my family never wanted me. Not until I was strong at least." I added the last part, knowing how she was about to retaliate.

"A child should be loyal to his father." She spat.

"I'm not a child." I growled; "I never was. You never let me. What child is brought up to believe stealing is right? I stole that pokemon right there holding you, thinking it was my only choice."

Feraligatr blinked, it had never known it was just taken. Still, it stood strong; the true meaning of loyal.

"Ha! I knew you weren't this strong through your own doing." She laughed at me, as I turned to Archer. It annoyed me that she could vex me so, it was exactly what she wanted.

I knelt beside the unconscious man and turned him on his back. I checked through his pockets, finding nothing but a feather. It was a pretty colour, and it shimmered in the light. I placed it into my pocket as I looked for the radio. Nothing.

She laughed from behind me again; "He destroyed it, knowing you were coming." She nodded to the pile of plastic and metal splinters on the floor.

"Take her downstairs." I ordered to my pokemon. It nodded and began carrying her with its strong claws, she couldn't even wriggle. Flo wandered over to me, and looked to Archer, I nodded; "He needs to go too." She bowed her head to me and lifted the fully grown man with ease, then followed Feraligatr.

"Soul?" I called, a little too harshly. She looked over with tear swollen eyes, then back to her friend. I wandered over, reluctant to help, but I knew I must.

"He's not waking up." She muttered as I knelt beside her. He was breathing, that had to be a good sign. She looked up to me with hopeful eyes; "He's going to be okay, isn't he?"

How would I know? I wanted to say probably not, but I bit my tongue and started hoisting one of his arms over me."Get him downstairs."

She nodded slowly, doing as she was told. I don't think she could really think for herself at the time, she was pretty distraught. With her on the other side, the boy became lighter, and we could start carrying him down the fact that he was a dead weight with no ability to walk wasn't making it any easier.

"He needs to wake up." I growled, and I could see Soul glare at me from the other side of him; "Look at him Silver, do you think he'd be okay to run down the stairs after us?"

He winced away from her, and his eyes flickered slightly. His lips cracked apart, and a dry throated groan rattled out of them. Soul was already reaching in her bag. "It's okay Ethan, we're here. We're going to get you out."

His eyes fluttered open, but only slightly, they were swollen and red with soreness. "Soul?"

"Yes, it's me." She cooed, her voice was so gentle, even more so than usual. Why I felt jealous, I don't know. I just had that gut feeling as if Ethan had turned around and punched me hard.

He looked to me, and I realised he really couldn't hit me, he was tall, but looked very frail. I guessed he wasn't a traveller, there was no way he'd survive with no muscle. "Who are you?"

"This is Silver, he helped me break in here and rescue you." Soul answered for me, delighted Ethan was responding to her that she wouldn't let me introduce myself.

He eyed me suspiciously; "Thanks, and nice to meet you." He said politely, though I knew he was being false.

"Pleasure." I muttered. I turned my head to the direction we were going. Yes he may not like me, but he still put all his weight on me. The urge to roll my eyes was overpowering.

I reached the first floor without saying any more, but they chatted non-stop about how we'd brought down Team Rocket. I'd had to bite my lip and not say anything, but I knew they were far from finished.

The girl with a Jigglypuff had now began to release the other hostages, including one man I don't remember seeing on the way up. He had been tied up, apparently, and his face lit up when he saw us.

"Ah! You're our heroes!" He said as he waited for the last of the ropes to be cut. I rolled my eyes, but Soul replied; "We came for our friend, but we got rid of Team Rocket too."

The man beamed; "I'm delighted I got to meet you! I am the director of the radio tower. I usually allow tours around here, and so I suspected nothing when they came in. They took my by surprise! But you! You three were so brave and strong. You rescued all of us."

Just as he'd finished talking, several police rushed in and began rushing around. They busied around like Beedrill, some checking for grunts, a couple arresting Archer and my mother, and some hurrying over to us. Two took Ethan from us and lay him down, and called for paramedics. Officer Jenny stood beside the Director and saluted to him; "We came as soon as you called, Director. We're sorry we didn't know any sooner."

"No matter, madam." The overly optimistic man flailed his arms and then gestured toward us; "They stopped Team Rocket before any of us were harmed."

"Except for Ethan and me." Soul muttered. I nodded, not failing to notice Jenny had been watching me.

She didn't say anything as the Director warbled on about how we'd been so brave etcetera, then she suddenly cut in; "Don't I know you?" She looked to Soul; "You're the witness from Professor Elm's lab." She looked back to me. Of course Soul handed me in. Always doing the right thing.

Soul was quick to talk; "Yes ma'am. Did you find the thief?" Her voice was stuttered and nervous, but Jenny didn't notice. "No, not yet. We're still on the search though."

I was sweating, I looked over to Ethan, who was being treated.

"Well if we see him again, I'll be sure to stop him." Soul blatantly lied. I looked to her, and she smiled at me and nodded. I slowly nodded back, going along with it.

"Your friend doesn't talk much." The Director chuckled. Soul took my hand lightly and grinned back to him; "He's tired. We both are."

Officer Jenny finally stopped watching me and took out her notebook. "Well I'm sorry, but I'm going to need a witness statement from one of you."

Soul nodded; "I will, after all, it's not my first time." She laughed nervously, and followed Jenny to some seats in the corner, where it would be quieter. I looked to the Director, who was smiling appreciatively at the two.

"How will I ever thank you?" He sighed.

I shrugged, but I felt a little sick to my stomach at how close to jail I'd just been. I'd be stuck with my mother. I shuddered away and pulled out the feather. There was no way I would steal this too. "I found this on the leader, sir."

The director plucked it from my fingers, and examined this, his eyes wide with awe. "This is not mine, son."

I winced at the name; "Do you know what it is?"

He nodded slowly; "I've heard the rumours, but I never thought I'd see one. It's called a Rainbow Wing, and they are very very rare." He grabbed my hand and prized it open so he could place it on my palm. "This must be yours, it couldn't belong to Team Rocket. You've been chosen, my boy. You must go to Ecruteak, they've been searching for you!"

"Who's they?" Why was I going along with this? It was ridiculous, destiny and chosen ones... I scoffed mentally.

"The Kimono girls, they'll be expecting you." He nodded; "You must go right away."

Soul had finished already, and had heard the last of the conversation; "Go where?"

I turned to her; "Ecruteak."

"But Ethan..."

The director took her hands and shook them; "I'll be sure your friend gets home safely, you must go now! Both of you!"

She looked to me with shocked eyes, and I shrugged.

"Go." Another voice popped in, we turned to see Ethan was looking our way. "You don't have to worry about me, I'll be okay. Just come home soon, Soul, promise."

I scowled in his direction, and turned back to Soul. She was nodding; "Promise." Her eyes flickered up to me; "Let's go."

Well I had nothing better to do. I let her drag me towards the stairs.

"Take care, both of you!" The director yelled as we left the room.

* * *

**Well I'm very very sorry I took so long with this chapter, I've just been ill... Bombarded with assignments, NaNo, my Ikari... I couldn't get to this. So I hope this chapter was satisfactory. It was planned to be a long chapter, but lets pretend I did it to make up for my excuses. Yes yes? :)**


	13. Soul : Unsure Priorities

**Apologies! I really couldn't get started on this chapter! So I forced myself.**

**Soul - Unsure Priorities**

_"Soul?"_

_"Mmm?" I looked to my best friend, who'd been chatting endlessly for a long while, and suddenly went quiet. This was the first time he's spoke for about five minutes. Something had been playing on his mind._

_"I think I know where I've seen him, Soul!" He whispered urgently. My eyes widened as I watched him narrow his eyes at Silver. He must have seen him in New Bark, when he'd been running! There was no way I would be able to persuade him to stick up for a thief, particularly for one who stole from his father. I turned my body ready to run for Silver and then the stairs. _

_"He was on the television not so long ago! He battled a girl and beat her so easily she cried! On national telly!" Ethan laughed aloud, causing a few stares. The stares I could handle, I sweatdropped and relaxed. _

_Nodding, a relieved smile graced my face; "Yes, he's impressive, isn't he?"_

_"I bet you could beat him though, Soul. You're so good at battling now." Ethan beamed at me. _

_I grinned back; "he's yet to beat me." I said proudly. "We've been rivals for quite a while now, he even brought me my coat after he lost one time!" I laughed freely, causing Silver to glare over to us. I stopped and turned back to Ethan, but he wasn't laughing. _

_"So is he your boyfriend?"_

_I recoiled back in surprise. How had he jumped to that conclusion so quickly? He was correct in his assumptions of course, but Ethan was never quick to click on. _

_"You're very protective of him." He accused. _

_I raised an eyebrow; "You can say the same about yourself."_

_He sighed, taking my hand; "You know I'm protective of you too. But look what he let happen to you." He pointed to my neck with his spare hand. I touched it gently, it was sore, but had stopped bleeding; "It's not deep. It would have been a lot worse if he hadn't been there."_

_"I just don't like him. He's... Shifty."_

_I laughed; "Shifty?"_

_"Yeah, look." He nodded toward Silver, who looked extremely awkward standing with Officer Jenny and the Director. Ethan commented; "He can't look them in the eye."_

_"I'll be back in a minute." I patted his shoulder gently, and walked over to Silver to help him._

_"You must go now!" The Director squealed enthusiastically. I smiled; "Go where?"  
_

_

* * *

_

Having already been to see the Kimono girls by myself, I headed for the theatre without needing to stop for directions. It had taken us a few uneventful days to get here, but I was excited to be sharing my time with Silver.

Ethan had arrived home the previous day to our arrival at Ecruteak. Professor Elm couldn't stop thanking me (obviously not Silver, who'd refused to be anywhere near the phone whilst I talked,) until his son put the phone down. I grinned and took my tired pokemon back from Nurse Joy, and left to meet Silver.

He'd been waiting for me on a bench by one of the beautiful blossom trees for shelter from the rain. His face was like the thunder that clattered above us. He'd not been impressed that I'd insisted we went here.

Holding a hand out to him, I scoffed; "Come on, we're here now. What have you got to lose?"

"A week of my life I could be spending on training." He muttered. I rolled my eyes at him and nudged him with my elbow; "You can train later."

"Mmm..."

He took my hand, and I led him around the corner. The theatre was only small, but it was beautifully decorated. There was nobody in the audience, and yet they performed like they knew we were coming. They swirled around each other, sometimes spreading out to the edges of the stage, then moving into a tight circle where they weaved in between each other. It was almost hypnotic, but I managed to look at Silver, who was also entranced.

Whilst the others continued to spin in pretty patterns, one stepped to the front of the stage. "Welcome." She said calmly, her face showing little emotion, but a smiled was painted on her lips.

We nodded back, but said nothing. She began to walk for the side of the stage, so she could come down to us. Suddenly, one girl stopped spinning right behind her, and followed her down the steps. They all did so one after the other once the circle had reached the front corner. They formed a semi-circle around her as she stopped in front of us.

"We thought you were coming. The wind changed direction." She looked to Silver, who frowned even harder than usual. In all fairness, so did I. What did the wind have to do with the direction he travelled in? One girl, younger than the others, giggled quietly at our expressions, but the rest stayed still. "Do you have it?" The youngest whispered, she leant closer to Silver, who compensated by leaning away.

"Do I have what?" He asked cautiously. I smiled and reached into his pocket as I said; "the Rainbow Wing, they want to see it."

I hadn't touched it before, but it was heavier than I thought it would have been. It looked like a feather, and yet it was dense and felt like brittle stone. Once my fingers touched, it glowed magnificently, showing the meaning of its name by dazzling so many different shades of colour around the room.

The Kimono girls all looked to each other quickly, whispering between each other as I stared at the wing in awe.

The leader bowed her head to me as she held out a hand; "You must come with us. It will be waiting."

"Who are we meeting?" Silver scowled impatiently, folding his arms across his chest. I frowned to him, ashamed of his rudeness to the kind dancers.

"You are staying here." One of the older girls pointed to him, another one pointed to me; "She needs to go alone."

"What?" We both said together, though Silver was more annoyed than me. I shook my head; "You've got it wrong, Silver found the wing, he should be the one to go."

More whispers, Silver glared at me, I could see he wanted to leave then and there.

"You should both come, then." The eldest decided; "We do not know which of you are chosen."

I looked to Silver again, he was breathing heavily in an attempt to stay calm. "Would you like to tell us what it is we are doing?" He seethed through gritted teeth. The youngest, the one who giggled, did so nervously this time, and stepped forward; "We're calling Ho-oh to stop this weather."

The tallest girl nodded; "We fear the balance of the weather has been thrown off, but with your help, we can call Ho-oh to fix it."

I took Silver's hand in mine, and nodded to them; "We'll do anything we can to help." He groaned beside me, but I ignored him as I followed the girls out of the theatre.

* * *

"This place is beautiful." I murmured as we walked through a beautiful woodland area, where the leaves were dazzlingly orange and yellow, like Autumn, they danced from their twigs to the floor. Silver hummed quietly, in what I assumed was agreement, but he didn't sound too enthusiastic. We approached a beautiful tall tower, only to find the Kimono girls had vanished.

"Great." He spat, all the serenity the wood had given him had drained once he realised we were abandoned; "Let's go, they're wasting our time."

I tugged him back; "We must have just been dawdling. Come on, I'll bet we have to climb to the top."

"You can't be serious." He grumbled as I tugged him to the door. He was reluctant, but when he realised I wasn't giving in, he followed me on his own accord.

The Bell tower had nothing on this. I was physically exhausted as I reached the top floor, and saw light peeking through the last set of stairs.

"Who's stupid idea was this?" Silver panted, his voice a mere mutter under his breath. I ignored him and pushed myself up the last climb.

It was a simple rooftop, with a bell in the middle. However, the view was indescribable, my breath was taken away as I looked around. I could see the ocean, miles away, even though we were in the middle of the mainland. Spinning around, I could see all of Johto, it was stunning, and I was immediately happy I'd climbed the stupidly tall tower to receive such an amazing view. Even if I was getting soaked in the freezing cold altitude.

"This is it?" I gasped, stumbling back a little as I tried to come to terms with the beauty of my homeland.

"Yes this is where we meet Ho-Oh." The eldest replied as her fellow Kimono girls formed a circle around the bell. "When the dance we practiced becomes one with the sound of the clear bell and the light of your Rainbow Wing, then Ho-Oh will come down from the great arch of the sky once again."

Silver rolled his eyes, but handed me the Rainbow Wing. As it had before, it glowed in my palms, this time glowing even brighter to the sound of the clear bell. The Kimono girls danced the the rhythm the pendulum created, the massive glass bell creating a clear, beautiful noise that rang out into the sky.

I sighed blissfully, feeling extremely peaceful in such a pure place. I hadn't noticed the rain slowing until the warmth of the sun started drying me off, and I looked up to see a rainbow had formed because of it.

With the gentle breeze that began picking up, little bells all around the edge of the tower began chiming harmoniously, to create a beautiful melody using the wind as its musician. I tugged Silver before he could object, and placed his hands onto my hips. He frowned as my hands wound around his neck.

Seeing as he didn't know where I was going with this, I swayed to the side, then back again. He snorted; "What are you doing?"

"Dancing." I replied evenly, even when he rolled his eyes at me again. "It's romantic!" I insisted.

"Right..." He stood there aimlessly, only moving because I was. I smiled, at least he wasn't pulling away. That was all I could ask of him, really. I rested my head onto his shoulder, and his hands went rigid on the small of my back so he was sure they didn't move any lower.

"You know," I whispered; "You saved my life again. You're becoming quite the superhero." I giggled. He snorted; "Well what do I get this time? Since you've attacked me the past two times."

I lifted my head, I was about to deny his accusation, but it was true. My lips pursed until I said; "Well what do you want?"

He smirked and moved closer, something I was happy to comply with. He kissed me gently, our feet still padding alternately as we circled around, being clearly outshone by the Kimono girls when it came to dancing skills.

I smiled as he pulled away again, and I asked; "Why _do_ you keep saving me?"

He stopped spinning, and his eyes flicked away quickly; "Ho-oh is here."

I spun my head around, and I then realised it wasn't the sun that was drying me, but the heat from the magnificent creature that landed atop of the bell. The Kimono girls began chanting something to the phoenix pokemon, and I turned back to Silver. "Why do you like me?" I pressed.

His eyes were on Ho-oh, hungry for the power it possessed.

"Silver!" I pushed his shoulder so he looked at me. Our eyes met and he couldn't look away, he squirmed until he blurted; "You're a really strong trainer."

Wow. That took some thought. I glared at him; "That's it? I'm strong?"

"Well..."

"I like you because you're passionate and determined and deep down you do have feelings. But you always have to ruin it!" I growled, not really caring that the Kimono girls had stopped to look at us. "You're always about strength, how can you get stronger."

It suddenly dawned on me; "That's why you kissed me back, wasn't it?"

"No." He denied, though the lie was evident in his eyes.

"You wanted me to help you up the radio tower because you couldn't do it alone." I shouted. Stepping back, my right hand slapped across him for the second time in a week. He pressed his palm to the area I'd hit and glared at me as I spat; "You disgust me, you thieving, deceitful, treacherous liar!"

With tears threatening to show my weakness, I turned and ran for the edge of the rooftops. Throwing a pokeball, Togekiss waited for me to jump. I didn't want to see him again. I'd trusted him against my judgement, and he'd thrown it back in my face.

I would show him I could be strong without his help, and he would regret the day he saw me as a pawn rather than a partner.

"To Blackthrorn." I barked, as we headed for the last gym battle before I entered the Indigo Plateau.

* * *

**Again, apologies for the lateness. I have no excuse except I couldn't bring myself to write and I've been addicted to making AMVs. **


	14. Silver : Ice inside your Soul

Silver - Ice inside your Soul.

I'd been waiting a while now. So it was a shock when she suddenly stumbled to a stop mere feet away from me. She looked more amazing than ever now she was dry, her hair had fallen into loose curls, and wasn't hidden by her hat. She didn't wear the coat I'd brought her anymore, but a red blazer and a navy dress. She had her white stockings on with dainty red shoes that were clearly not designed for cave trekking, she was stupidly impractical like that, but it's what I liked about her.

I'd forgotten what I'd planned to say. Apologies weren't my forte. That strange connection we always seemed to get occurred again, only her eyes were not friendly and curious anymore. She stared at me blankly, like all the sparkle that I'd once detested had run dry. I hated that it wasn't there. I hated that I was the one to drain it from her. She looked behind her, as if she were looking for some way to escape.

"Soul-" her name sounded so right on my tongue, like I should have said it time and time again after the journey to theBellTower. Only I'd gone and screwed it up, and she ran away leaving no trail for me to chase. It wasn't until I stopped at a gym and noticed her name inscribed in the winner's trophy did I realise her plan. She was carrying on as if I'd never met her. This had been the only place I knew I would find her. Victory Road.

I'd braced for another slap, but she made no move for me. All of her body language was screaming hesitancy, her stiff upper body, her clenched fists, her bent legs as if she were about to turn and run. But she made no move. She just stood there, lifeless, frozen. "Who do you think you are?" She whispered, her eyes slowly dragging back to me.

My initial reaction was to humorlessly laugh, because the joke was I didn't know _who_ I was anymore. Back before I knew her I was a nobody, not even my family registered my existence. Once I'd found my goal in life, I'd found a purpose, a pokemon, but it wasn't enough. Until battling her was my goal. I was acknowledged by her, she was always interested in what I had to say, despite how vile I was to her. Those six words she'd just said were a learning curve for me, I realised that I was a nobody without her. She was a light, and with or without me, she would be a star.

"I cleared the way for you." I mumbled pathetically, gesturing to the exit of the tunnel.

She snorted lifelessly, her cheerful personality had gone, leaving behind a bitter, sarcastic version of herself. Almost a mirror of me. "How sweet."

"Please Soul-" Begging, there's a first; "please forgive me."

Her eyes closed tightly, and she tried her best to breath evenly, but it was ragged, forced. She was in pain. It tore me to pieces to see I'd inflicted that. I was as much a monster as my father. I ought to be shot, but that would be an easy way out. I needed to make her better.

"I trusted you." She rightfully accused me. "I trusted you wouldn't betray me." I remembered vividly what she'd said to me at theSproutTower. She'd thrown my words back in my face, I deserved everything she could hit me with.

"What can I do?" I asked her helplessly, surprised when tears started rolling down my face, another first. "Tell me how to make it better!" I took a step closer, and her eyes shot open to stare at my feet. My hands reached for her, palms up. I didn't know what to do. I desperately wanted to comfort her, but how could I soothe a pain when I was the one causing it? The longer I stood here not fixing it, the more pain I was causing. Her composure was crumbling before my eyes.

"You know," She was suddenly talking, but it was clearly to herself; "back in Azalea town, when I had that cold. I thought I was safe with you caring for me, because we were friends. I knew I would do anything for you, because that's what friends do. I'd never had a_ 'friend' _like you before. A_ 'friend' _who questioned the rules of our relationship, who put himself before me. I didn't notice how selfish your actions were. You're a cold hearted criminal, Silver."

"I'm not anymore." I insisted; "Please realise that I changed, you've changed me!"

She glared at me as I walked closer, she clearly didn't want me near but she wasn't listening to me. I wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her until she understood. I wanted to hold her waist and clutch onto it so she couldn't walk away from me as I begged forgiveness. But I should know that I couldn't get anything from her when I didn't deserve it anymore. She'd given me enough, and I'd beat the generosity out of her until she'd snapped.

I could only try to bring out that generosity once more as I fell to my knees, arms out pleading. "I didn't mean to hurt you, I wasn't thinking. I was an idiot. Please Soul! Plea-se..." My voice broke at the end, and I could barely talk anymore. If the Silver I once was could see where I am now, he would have laughed mercilessly at the state I was in, but I had the experience of this journey now, I was no longer that Silver. I couldn't even imagine being that Silver anymore. My emotions controlled me now, and there was no way I could shut them back again. I placed my hands on my face, hiding myself away from her, hiding her away from me too. I couldn't stand the guilt.

The force of her pushing me snapped me out of the mess I'd been in. My hands caught me as I fell onto my back, my legs sprawled in front of me. I looked up to see her glaring over me. "If you've changed, then you have to prove it."

I nodded, "Tell me how and I will."

Her voice sounded tearful, but it was the most emotion I'd had from her so far. "You fix every problem you ever caused, and maybe I'll start to believe you."

I immediately knew which problems she was talking about, but it was easier said than done. Still, I nodded; "Of course."

She walked past me without acknowledging my response. I scrambled back onto my knees to face her. "Soul!" She stopped walking, but did not turn to face me. I wasn't sure what to say, but my new, frantic emotions said whatever they felt like; "You don't know how much you mean to me..." I laughed weakly; "Even _I _didn't know how much you mean to me until you left. I've been numb without you, frozen."

She hesitated, but she turned her head slightly over her shoulder; "Then thaw the ice in your Soul, Silver."

She walked away without turning to look at me, and I stood to run after her, but my legs stayed planted. They knew not to follow her, we had nothing more to say for now. I needed to do as she said, and regain her trust.

I silently willed for her to defeat Lance, initially because I didn't like him, but I reminded myself that she was doing it for herself, not for me. Though my prayers would not be the reason for her winning, I wasn't satisfied until I'd finished wishing for her success. My legs robotically began walking in the opposite way she had gone.

Thaw my Soul.

I knew she meant clear my conscience, but I couldn't help but think of the implications. I had to save her, because I wasn't the only one icy and numb, I'd frozen her too. Thaw my Soul, she'd told me how, and begged I would do so.

My fingers ran over the pokeballs over my belt, and I knew what I needed to do.

* * *

**Hey guys! Long time no write, huh? Wow. Sorry about that. I've been having a difficult time writing at all recently, but a song I listened to suddenly reminded me of this. I felt I needed to finish it. Cookies to anybody who recognises the song that influenced me.**

**So only one more chapter to go, and even if I've lost all of my readers because I left it so long, I thought I should finish it as a thanks for your support anyway. **

**And another apology for the shortness of this chapter, there wasn't much more I could say in this one, but it's one of the most important chapters out of the whole fic; the turning point of Soul's tsundere'ness. If that's even a word. XD**

**Anyway, thanks again for reading this guys! And reviews, though not deserved, would be greatly appreciated. :)**

**And also! Could you fill out my poll please! It'd take two seconds! :D**


	15. Soul : The Burden of Loneliness

**Soul - The Burden of Loneliness.**

I should be elated. I should feel like my life is fulfilled. The feeling of pride should run through my veins as the adrenaline of the ultimate battle of my life was only mere weeks ago. I smile now, but only because it makes my pokemon happy, and they deserve everything I can give them in return for their loyalty.

Loyalty. It's so hard to come by these days. I stare out to the landscape as wind whipped through my hair. I stood at the top of the plateau, not even it's beauty could bring out my happiness.

"Soul..."

I did not need to turn around, Lance was checking up on me again. "Are you okay?" He asked me.

It was hard work, but I managed to smile, flashing my teeth to him. "I'm fine, thank you."

He didn't seem happy with my response, he never was happy with it. I guess I should still be bouncing around the hall of fame, but I'd barely managed to keep myself from dragging my feet in there.

"Are you ill, Soul? You should see a nurse..." He walked closer, his eyes scanning my face for signs of weakness.

"My health is perfect, Lance. You don't have to worry about me." I assured him, looking over my shoulder to see the landscape again.

He tilted his head to the side, examining me even more. "I think you are sick."

I turned to deny his assumption again, but he interrupted me before I could. "Home sick."

I looked down at my fingers, they twiddled around each other. Home. I hadn't been there in so long. It wasn't the source of this melancholy I'd fallen into, but it might help me to go back to the place I was most happy in.

Lance placed a hand on my shoulder; "You should go see your mother, stay there a while. You don't have anymore interviews in your schedule, and I can look after the Plateau while you're away."

I thought about it a moment. My life had been extremely busy these past few weeks. Now I was champion, everybody wanted to know about me. From all over the world, journalists had come for conferences, and some had even paid out the top dollar to get one-on-one interview time. I was no longer short of cash, and my mother would never want for anything again in her life, but I was tired, I needed rest.

"That would be nice, thank you." I muttered, smiling as he placed a hand on my cheek.

"Would you like me to escort you home?" He asked quietly.

I shook my head, grasping his wrist and taking his hand in my own. He'd become a very good friend for me, a mentor for my new champion status. His only problem was the feelings I knew he had for me, ones I could not return. Still, he knew that, so he kept quiet. But I saw the way he would watch me wistfully as I signed an autograph, and the way his fingers lingered on my shoulder longer than necessary when he was steering me in the right direction.

"Of course," he smiled; "you're not a child anymore, you should go yourself. Enjoy the time alone." He began walking down the tower again, and I followed him.

Loneliness was something I often craved when around people now, and yet when I was granted the peace, I hated the feeling of being alone. I was forever locked in this uncomfortable feeling of not knowing what I wanted. Maybe it was certain company I craved. My mother, my pokemon, Ethan...

I paused my trail of thought before it reached the place that would make me angry. Lance did not know, but I'm sure he would work it out if I started acting weirdly.

"It's strange isn't it? How far you've come. I remember how daunting it was for me... If you ever need to talk to me, I'm just a phone call away." Lance obviously had a different train of thought to mine, but I was glad for the distraction.

"I know, Lance. You've been wonderful with me." I was careful how I worded things around him, I did not want to hurt his feelings by getting his hopes up. "I'm very grateful."

He grinned; "Well, I owe it to you after you helped me inMahoganyTown."

I smiled, I'd done barely anything in that underground hideout, he'd taken out all of the grunts. Still, it was valuable training and experience to have fought next to him. I probably wouldn't be champion now if I hadn't.

I reached the front of the league, and several people waited for me in excitement.

"I came to challenge you, Soul!"

"Sign my t-shirt! Please!"

"You're an inspiration to all girls!"

I'd heard it several times before now, but it didn't get boring. I smiled and nodded gratefully to the group, signing whatever they wanted. After all, they were the ones who supported me, I owed them something in return.

As soon as I could leave, I hurried out of the door and onto Missy's (my Togekiss) back. It ascended the sky quickly and glided the majority of the way. The gentle wind was soothing, until it began picking up and I watched my home town -renowned for it's harsh winds- get closer and closer.

I gripped onto Missy's fur with one hand as I held onto my hair with the other, it would be back to it's usual mess as soon as my feet touched the floor, but I'd been so used to my hair looking tidied for interviews.

"To-geehh!" She indicated we were landing, and she was a graceful as ever, and I never felt her jolt or stumble as she placed her delicate toes to the floor.

"Thank you, Missy." I smiled as I slid off. She looked at me, and smiled with gentle concern. I pointed her pokeball at her; "Take a rest."

"Kisssaaa!"

I sighed once the red energy finished sucking into the pokeball, and started wandering. I knew the place like the back of my hand, and I didn't really need to concentrate as I found my home.

The door was unlocked, so Mom was home. I gently opened the door and peered my head around. She had put her feet up, for once. She was watching some news, and of course, I was the main topic.

"Hey Mom." I made myself known, and she spun up to stand and face me. Her face lit up with so many emotions, pride, relief, joy... "Oh my baby!" She cried, her eyes flowing with tears already as she ran over. I dropped my bag and hurried forward, her arms waiting for me.

"Mom..." I whimpered, burying my face into her collar bone. She was restricting my airflow, but it was somehow comforting.

"Baby I'm so proud of you!" She sobbed onto my head. We stood there for a little while, she rocked me side to side, and we even sat down in the embrace. I'd been gone for so long, I didn't realise how much I missed her until I came back. My mother's instinct was deep to the core, she had been aware of how much she missed me right from the moment I'd left.

* * *

I stepped outside, only to be greeted normally by the usual townsfolk I'd known all my life. They obviously wanted this town to be a place for normality, as I would be stopped wherever I went now. I even wore the cap I'd started my journey with just to feel peaceful and normal again.

"Soul! You're back!"

Ethan, of course. I turned and smiled, and he collided into me, his Marill hopping after him happily.

"Congratulations!" He chimed excitedly.

"Thanks." I nodded back, gently pushing him away from me so I didn't offend him. He didn't seem bothered, as he began chattering quickly; "So, how does it feel being Champion of Johto? I bet you've not slept. You don't look like you have at all." Great, so I felt like crap as well as looked like it. I knew he meant no harm but it still stung. "I mean, you've been all over the news, you're like, a mega star!"

"Hmm..." What else could I say? I started to walk past him, knowing he would follow.

"Tell me about the battle Soul! Please?" He waved his arms wildly, and I chuckled for the first time in weeks. It felt strange and foreign on my tongue, but at the same time so familiar and comforting. I began to tell him of my final major battle, how Pippin had taken out his Gyrados quickly, and then Furry wiped a Charizard, falling to Aerodactyl. Missy worked hard on taking that out, and then we face his Dragonite. Missy tried, and failed, as did Lumi and Aqua (my latest edition to my party, a beautiful Dewgong.) It was all down to Flo, and we worked in total sync.

_"Flame wheel now!"_

_She dove from a huge leap and rolled to the floor, hitting it and bouncing off it again, leaving a huge burn mark. The tired Dragonite wouldn't have been able to evade, so it held its hands out and tried to hold off the attack. _

_"Hyper beam!" Lance called, his cape billowing from the energy racing on the wind around the room. He looked so majestic and brilliant, commanding and powerful. It terrified me, but Flo's magnificent roar kicked me into gear, we could do this. _

_I had to avoid that attack. _

_As it charged, I racked my brains for some way to block it. Flo's moves flashed through my head until I finally found the one that would work. "Use Rock Tomb on yourself!"_

_Flo didn't look at me questionably like Lance did, she simply did it. Like she could see what I was imagining in my mind, she created a rock case around herself using the field's ground. The Hyper Beam landed on it, and I held my breath for a second. _

_"Rakaaaaa!" I heard Flo screech through the stone encasement. She was telling me to attack. She couldn't see what to do. I scanned the room, Dragonite had flown upwards as it waited to recharge. Out of range from a flamethrower. Clever._

_"Double edge, downwards!" I called, and Flo trusted me as much as I trusted her. She hit the floor hard, and shards of rock shot everywhere. Dragonite couldn't have avoided in peak condition. It crashed into the floor, and was struggling to get up again. _

_I had to take advantage of that. _

_"Come on, Dragon Rush!" Lance forced a hand backwards passionately as he clung to his title. He was at the edge of the cliff, waiting for me to push him off. _

_"Flo! Flamethrower!" I demanded from my tired pokemon. It stood on its four legs, charging the blistering fire collar around its neck as fire erupted from its mouth. Dragonite had been dragging it's glowing claw in the ground to make it more powerful. _

_The attacks collided, and Flo was already running for the smoke. "Finish it off with a Flame Wheel!"_

"Wow... So what's the Hall of Fame like?" Ethan had been engrossed in my story and wanted to know more, but he suddenly shook his head and interrupted our conversation. "Oh wait, your friend Silver came looking for you! I think he was a little jealous that you're the champion now, he looked upset."

"Did he now..." I said bitterly, though I'd been surprised when his named popped up in the conversation. The one moment I'd managed to forget about him, he had to appear in my conscience again.

"Oh and Dad wanted to see you, he needs to check on how Flo has progressed." He rolled his eyes, picking up his Marill. I'd forgotten that reason for my journey, Flo was given to me to see how I bonded with her. I'm sure Professor Elm would be happy with the result, we were closer than sisters, we were almost telepathic.

I forced a smile at Ethan; "I'll tell you about the Hall of Fame later. I should go see your father now."

"Yeah, you're right." He patted my back and ran up the side of the laboratory to his home.

I toyed with Flo's pokeball, and walked for the front door. The assistant smiled; "He's being seen by a young boy at the moment, but he should be right with you in a moment if you want to go through."

I nodded and thanked him, walking through the large corridor.

"I don't believe it! You dare show your face here? Give me two reasons not to call the police!" Professor Elm shouted, his voice was angrier than I'd ever heard it. I picked up my speed, clutching Flo's pokeball ready fight whoever was around the corner.

Only to stop in my tracks once I rounded it, my eyes locking onto the red mass of long, shaggy hair that looked severely wind swept. Elm looked at me briefly, but he was more fixated on the criminal knelt before him. Silver was yet to notice my arrival.

"Please, sir." His voice sounded odd when he was being polite. "I beg your forgiveness, here, take it back. He's a Feraligatr now, but he deserves better than me."

Something yanked me from my cold shell, and I stepped forward. "No."

Elm looked at me with wide eyes, and Silver flinched, frozen facing away from me.

"Take a look at his Feraligatr, I've never seen a more loyal pokemon. It really trusts him." I may not be his biggest fan, but his pokemon were. I had to give him credit where it was due, he'd worked hard with his pokemon.

Elm eyed Silver, who bowed his head lower under the gaze. "Let me see it."

Silver obeyed quietly, releasing his stolen pokemon.

"Flo, swift." I threw my own pokeball, and she shot at Silver with all her might, still angry at him. Feraligatr took the attack without thinking, growling back at Flo.

Elm was wide eyed with fascination, but suddenly his brow furrowed. "I never thought I'd see that pokemon so... Happy."

Feraligatr turned to look at Elm and nodded, recognising his former carer.

Elm sighed, looking down to Silver again. "What made you take the pokemon?"

"I-" he glanced at me, and I nodded automatically. "I wanted to stop Team Rocket."

Elm looked to me, and I nodded to confirm this. Silver continued; "I wanted to be strong, and I didn't know how to do that."

"Well..." Elm clapped his hands together and inhaled deeply; "It wouldn't be fair to tear this wonderful pokemon from it's trainer after so long."

I handed Flo her pokeball, and glanced at her to tell her to stay silently. I then wheeled around and hurried for the exit. Elm would understand.

"Soul!" He grabbed my wrist and tugged me to a stop. I glared at our connection, what a nerve he had. "Please."

I'd run every trail of thought of him out of my mind for weeks now, so why was this sudden rush of him so pain-free, so simple? Like magnets, my positivity desperate to repel him by turning negative, but as soon as he got close...

I couldn't defy the laws of physics.

"Why did you come here?" I asked, no longer having the will to pull from the magnetism.

"B-because you told me to." He whispered; "I didn't know what else to do."

My lips twitched, but I was too strong to be weakened by his naivity anymore. I forced my legs forward, and I began walking for the exit, his grip fell off my fingers, losing the pull once I was far enough away.

"Wait!" I heard him call, heard him run. I stopped in the middle of the small garden outside of the laboratory.

"I never made any promises to you before. I never broke any either." He said lowly. Was I supposed to forgive him just like that? Some defence. Clearing his throat, he began talking again. "But I promise you this now, I never planned to hurt you. I never will aim to either. I promise to look after you now, fix my accident. Thaw _my _Soul."

I knew he didn't mean his soul literally, he meant me. He claimed me as his own, just as I could claim him as mine if I weren't too stubborn.

He was suddenly behind me, his hands finding my bare shoulders and running down my arms to my fists, which he uncurled and entwined his fingers between mine. Both his and my arms wrapped around me, and he gently rested his chin on my shoulder.

I inhaled. His smell was already consuming my thoughts. "I promise to look after you, guide you..." I turned to face him; "and to love you... If you want, that is."

"I can't think of anything that would disgust me more." He teased, pleased by my response.

And he leant closer. Our vows to protect each other sealed as he held my face gently to his, throwing my cap to the floor.

How much he had changed, I realised as he kissed me. The Silver I once knew had shoved me away at the slightest contact. He shied away from any conversation, and disappeared if his emotions demanded attention. Yet here he stood, under the eyes of Newbark citizens, holding me close and kissing me. He was nowhere near perfect, but he was a hell of a lot closer than he was the last time we met here.

As champion of Johto, and partner to the one I loved, the burden of loneliness lifted, and my life could not be any better.

* * *

**Well I hope that was more satisfying than the last chapter. Hahaa.****  
****Wheyyy, it's finished! I'm not as sad as I thought I would be, but maybe it's because I actually ended a 'fic with a happy ending for once. :O**  
**Not much more I can say here. Reviews, poll... You know what to do. :)**

**Oh oh! There will be an epilogue, but I'd like to know what you'd like to see. How would you like the epilogue to be? I have an idea myself, but I'd like to see what you think first. ^^**


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